Page:The Improvisatrice.pdf/124

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112
ROSALIE.


By the heart's beat alone. Oh, silence is
Love's own peculiar eloquence of bliss!—
Music swept past:—it was a simple tone;
    But it has wakened heartfelt sympathies;—
It has brought into life things past and gone;
    Has wakened all those secret memories,
That may be smothered, but that still will be
Present within thy soul, young Rosalie!
The notes had roused an answering chord within:—
In other days, that song her vesper hymn had been.
Her altered look is pale:—that dewy eye
    Almost belies the smile her rich lips wear;—
That smile is mocked by a scarce breathing sigh,
    Which tells of silent and suppressed care—
    Tells that the life is withering with despair,
More irksome from its unsunned silentness—
    A festering wound the spirit pines to bear;