She turned round to me with her steadfast eyes: "I tell you I have looked upon the dead; "Have kissed the brow and the cold lips;" she said; "Have called upon the sleeper to arise; "He loved me, yet he stirred not; on this wise, "Not bowing in weak agony my head, "But all too sure of what life is, to dread, "Learned I that love and hope are fallacies." She gazed quite calmly on me; and I felt Awed and astonished and almost afraid: For what was I to have admonished her? Then, being full of doubt and fear, I knelt, And tears came to my eyes even as I prayed: But she, meanwhile, only grew statelier. |