THIS morn with trembling I awoke, Just as the dawn my slumber broke: Flapping came a heavy wing, sounding pinions o'er my head, Beating down the blessed air with a weight of chilling dread -- Felt I then the presence of a doom That an Evil occupied the room -- And I dared not round the bower, Chilly in the grayish morning, Dared not face the evil power, With its voice of inward warning. Vain with weakness we may palter -- Vainly may the fond heart falter, Came there upon my soul, dropping down like leaden weight, Burning pang or freezing pang, which I know not 't was so great; Life hath its moments black unnumbered, I knew not if mine eyes had slumbered, Yet I little thought such pain Ever to have known again -- Love dies, too, when Faith is dead, Yesternight Faith perished. I knew that Love could never change -- That Love should die seems yet more strange -- Lifting up the downy veil, screening Love within my heart, Beating there as beat my pulse, moving like myself a part -- I had kept him cherished there so deep, Heart-rocked kept him in his balmy sleep, That till now I never knew How his fibres round me grew -- Could not know how deep the sorrow Where Hope bringeth no to-morrow. I struggled, knowing we must part, I grieved to lift him from my heart, Grieving much and struggling much, forth I brought him sorrowing -- Drooping hung his fainting head -- all adown his dainty wing, Shrieked I with a wild and dark surprise -- For I saw the marble in Love's eyes -- Yet I hoped his soul would wait As he oft had waited there -- Hovering though at Heaven's gate -- Could he leave me to despair! Unfolded they the crystal door, Where Love shall languish never more -- Weeping Love thy days are o'er. Lo! I lay thee on thy bier Wiping thus from thy dead cheek every vestige of a tear! Love has perished -- hist, hist how they tell, Beating pulse of mine, his funeral knell! Love is dead, ay dead and gone, Why should I be living on; -- Why be in this chamber sitting, With but phantoms round me flitting! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...REPULSE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE DINNER-PARTY by AMY LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WILLIAM JONES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONG OF THE OPEN COUNTRY by DOROTHY PARKER THEME IN YELLOW by CARL SANDBURG |