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STANZAS. 



Stood in dusky charms with the crisp tire crowned, 

 On the hallowed bourne, on the Nile's last bound : 



"We toiled side by side, for the hope was sweet 

 To engrave our names on the Eock of Time ; 



On the Koly Hill to implant our feet 



Where enfaned sits Fame o'er the earth sublime; 



And now rose the temple before our eyes. 



We had paid the price, we had plucked the prize ; 



When up stood the Shadow betwixt us twain — 

 Had the dusky goddess bequeathed her ban ? — 



And the ice of death through every vein 

 Of comradeship spread in briefest span ; 



The guerdon our toils and our pains had won, 



Was too great for two, was enough for one ; 



And deeper and deeper grew the gloom 



When the serpent tongue had power to sting, 



While o'er one of us hung the untimely doom, 

 A winter's night to a day of spring ; 



And heart from heart parting fell away 



At the fiat of Fate by her iron sway. 



It seems as though from a foamy * dream 



I awake, and this pallid mask behold, 

 And I ask — Can this be the end supreme 



Of the countless things of the days of old ? 

 This clay, is it all of what used to be 

 In the Afric land by the Zingian Sea ? 



Isabel Bukton. 



Trauma sind Schaume. 



