The Poetical Works of William Motherwell/And Have I Gazed?
And Have I Gazed?
And have I gazed on this bright form
While it was fast decaying?
And have I looked on these pale lips
While ghastly death and woman's love
Thereon with smiles were playing?
And do I see that lustrous eye
Now quenched in hopeless night?
And was that feebly-murmured sigh
Thy spirit's heavenward flight?
A moment since that eye was bright,
A moment since it beamed on me,
And now that lovely orb of light
Is fixed on dull vacuity;
That bosom throbb'd, that cheek was warm,
And in that round and polish'd arm
The thin blue veins were filled with life;
Now motionless and pale they lie;
Sad beauteous wrecks of that stern strife
In which a soul escaped on high!
Can I forget thy sad sweet smile,
Thy last, thy long impassioned look?
Can I forget the last farewell
It then so fondly took?
Oh no—methinks thy lips still seem
That smile of deepest love to beam,
And these eyes that now calmly sleep
Beneath their half-closed thin transparent covers,
Have all the lustre in their slumber deep
They had in life, and proud dominion keep
With light and sunshine over hearts and lovers.
Vain thought! Imagination's hollow trick
To wean the heart from brooding o'er its sorrow,
Away! Death's blighting dews have fallen thick
On that dear maiden's pale and bloodless cheek.
She smiled to-day; some gentle words did speak,
But nor one smile nor syllable will break
The silence of to-morrow!
Feast, feast mine eyes on happiness forelore,
Banquet on loveliness that hath not died,
A beauty slumbers there as heretofore,
A soul made to be deified.
What though the rose, like coward base, hath fled
From this cold cheek; the lily still is there;
And mark how its pure white is softly spread,
Where not one vagrant rose shall dare
Again to blossom on this maiden's cheek,
Or its bright innocence with shame to streak.