Oh, fly!-let us fly! for we must." Plumes till they trailed in the dust, I replied "This is nothing but dreaming: With hope and in beauty to-night: See, it flickers up the sky through the night! Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming, And be sure it will lead us aright: We safely may trust to a gleaming That cannot but guide us aright, Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night." Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her, But were stopped by the door of a tomb, And I said "What is written, sweet sister, Then my heart it grew ashen and sober As the leaves that were crispèd and serę, As the leaves that were withering and sere, And I cried "It was surely October On this very night of last year That I journeyed-I journeyed down here, That I brought a dread burden down here: On this night of all nights in the year, Ah, what demon has tempted me here? Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber, This misty mid region of Weir: Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." To Helen Helen, thy beauty is to me. Like those Nicæan barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, wayworn wanderer bore To his own native shore. On desperate seas long wont to roam, Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche The agate lamp within thy hand! The Last Leaf I saw him once before, The pavement stones resound, They say that in his prime, Not a better man was found But now he walks the streets, Sad and wan, And he shakes his feeble head, The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest In their bloom, And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb. My grandmamma has said— Long ago That he had a Roman nose, And his cheek was like a rose In the snow. But now his nose is thin, And it rests upon his chin Like a staff, And a crook is in his back, I know it is a sin For me to sit and grin At him here; But the old three-cornered hat, And the breeches, and all that, Are so queer! And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree In the spring, Let them smile, as I do now, Where I cling. |