Page:Flowers of Loveliness.pdf/20

Then, amid a forest lonely
    Does she seem to stray;
Our huge serpent, and one only,
    Seems to mark her way.
Then begins her hour of terror;
    Strange shapes know their time—
Struggling with some nameless error,
    With some unknown crime.

Phantoms crowd around, repeating
    Words that are of death;
Loud her startled heart is beating,
    Louder than her breath.
But a rosy lip has kissed her,
    With that kiss she wakes;
Pale she gazes on the sister
    Who her slumber breaks.

Mighty must have been the sorrow,
    Passionate the grief,
Which can thus a solace borrow,
    From that haunted leaf.
Scarcer does the broken-hearted
    Draw a living breath;
Better it were quite departed,
    Than this life in death."