220 THE DREAM OF MARIEZZO. 



We parted : but 'twas like the parting, 



Where one passed the gates of the grave ; 

 And one breast alone was smarting : 



It little knew the pang it gave ! 

 Or that, methought, 't had deemed it well to save. 



My dream was changed : a viewless space 



Of time had been flitting away ; 

 And I had striven with the base, 



In the vast crowd, without a ray 

 Of solace ; but I yet had won my way. 



I stood beside that form I'd left ; 

 The still fatal softness it wore : 

 That soul too true, it had been reft 



Of thoughts few dared in : now no more 

 The strangely fearful thing it was before. 



It had entered its bark alone, 



On the world's wild, billowy sea ; 

 And the waters had drowned its moan, 



As they hurried on heedlessly: 

 Ay, it was now a wreck of all to me. 



The past came o'er me ; 'twas a look 



Of bitterness ; for I had been 

 Long nursed in woe : my spirit shook ; 



My life's leaf withered yet but green 

 Whose sapless heart was scathed with tears unseen. 



My brain, flung loose, whirled maddening on, 

 On swollen and blackening in strife. 



Had some lost star of hope but shone ! 



Some rock with swift destruction rife ! 

 All earth was hell : and still I clung to life. 



One sad gaze more I met in pain ; 



It brought a fond sigh on the past ; 

 And yet there was no sigh again ! 



My soul recked not of this at last ; 

 And soon its silent tide 'gan ebbing fast. 

 Anon it changed : I felt as one 



Entire burning chaos of thought. 

 Mortal, mortality had gone j 



All save remembrance, ever fraught 

 With deeds of yore, when bosoms vainly wrought. 

 But in that world we yet were two ; 



The only two of their lost race, 

 That should have met again ; where grew 



Such joyless solitude of place : 

 Once all we madly wished : now all we trace. 



In sooth, it was a mournful land : 

 A universe cursed with a blight. 

 There Nature paused at Time's dead hand : 

 There arched no sky : but one cold light 

 Gleamed far around, to show us endless night. 



And we knew all things : we had seen 



The merited portion of crime. 

 Yea ! we knew all things : few, I ween, 



Of mortal ken may brook their chime ; 

 Which thrilled the souls, such knowledge dared to climb. 



