Page:An epic of women and other poems (IA epicofwomenother00osha).pdf/22

For godlike stature, and unchanging brow
  Broad as the heaven above,
Yea, for fair mighty looks ye chose, I trow;
  And prided you to see, in strivings rough,
Dauntless, their strong arms raised;
  And little loth were ye to give your love
To husbands such as these whom all men praised.

But I, indeed, of many wooers, took
  None such for boast or stay,
But a pale lover with a sweet sad look:
  The smile he wed me with was like some ray
Shining on dust of death;
  And Death stood near him on my wedding day,
And blanched his forehead with a fatal breath.

I loved to feel his weak arm lean on mine,
  Yea, and to give him rest,
Bidding his pale and languid face recline
  Softly upon my shoulder or my breast,—
Thinking, alas, how sweet
  To hold his spirit in my arms so press'd,
That even Death's hard omens I might cheat.