Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/44

"Oh! better far it is to mount yon pile,
    "And stretch my shuddering form beside the dead,
"Than with a torturing effort strive to smile,
    "And hide the bitter tears in silence shed—
"That state of loathed existence now is o'er,
"And I shall shrink from his embrace no more.

"The tyrant sleeps death's last and endless sleep,
    "Yet does his power beyond the grave extend,
"And I this most unholy law must keep,
    "And to the priest's unrighteous mandate bend,
"Or live an outcast—reft of queenly state—
"A beggar lost, despised, and desolate.

"Daughter and heiress of a princely line,
    "From my proud birth-right I disdain to stoop;
"Better it is to die, than inly pine,
    "And feel the soul, the towering spirit, droop
"Beneath the cruel toil, the years of pain,
"The lost, degraded widow must sustain.