200
poems.
O! such a glance of agony was in that fearful eye,
As though arrayed in fleshly robe, the pale-browed king were nigh.
The lowliest subject in her realm at his stern call might bow,
Nor wear such fixed and lone despair upon his pallid brow.
As though arrayed in fleshly robe, the pale-browed king were nigh.
The lowliest subject in her realm at his stern call might bow,
Nor wear such fixed and lone despair upon his pallid brow.
Well may deep dread the spirit seize, the eye with fear dilate:
What to the guilty shall avail the splendors of their state?
The shades of vanished years before her mental vision pass,
Reflected with unerring truth from Memory's faithful glass.
What to the guilty shall avail the splendors of their state?
The shades of vanished years before her mental vision pass,
Reflected with unerring truth from Memory's faithful glass.
Beside her couch a vision stands of rich and queenlike grace;
And truth and goodness sit enthroned upon her youthful face.
She rises, radiant with the spell of love's celestial light,
The worshiped idol of a court, the beautiful, the bright.
And truth and goodness sit enthroned upon her youthful face.
She rises, radiant with the spell of love's celestial light,
The worshiped idol of a court, the beautiful, the bright.
Kings bow in homage at her feet, their fealty to pay;
The minstrel breathes upon her ear his soul-entrancing lay.
Shrined in a nation's heart, the theme of story and of song,
Yet warmly loved of all, most bright amid a princely throng.
The minstrel breathes upon her ear his soul-entrancing lay.
Shrined in a nation's heart, the theme of story and of song,
Yet warmly loved of all, most bright amid a princely throng.
