Not merely with the mimic life that lies Within the compass of art's simulation; Their souls were looking through their painted eyes With awful speculation. On every lip a speechless horror dwelt ; Such earnest woe their features overcast, They might have stirred, or sighed, or wept, or spoken; But, save the hollow moaning of the blast, The stillness was unbroken. No other sound or stir of life was there, Except my steps in solitary clamber, From flight to flight, from humid stair to stair, From chamber into chamber. Deserted rooms of luxury and state, That old magnificence had richly furnished Rich hangings, storied by the needle's art, The silent waste of mildew and the moth The sky was pale; the cloud a thing of doubt; Some hues were fresh, and some decayed and duller; But still the BLOODY HAND shone strangely out With vehemence of color! The BLOODY HAND that with a lurid stain The BLOODY HAND significant of crime, O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; The death-watch ticked behind the panelled oak, Inexplicable tremors shook the arras, And echoes strange and mystical awoke, The fancy to embarrass. Prophetic hints that filled the soul with dread, But through one gloomy entrance pointing mostly, The while some secret inspiration said, That chamber is the ghostly! Across the door no gossamer festoon Swung pendulous-no web-no dusty fringes, No silky chrysalis or white cocoon About its nooks and hinges. The spider shunned the interdicted room, One lonely ray that glanced upon a bed, And yet no gory stain was on the quilt- Obscurely spotted to the door, and thence What human creature in the dead of night Had coursed like hunted hare that cruel distance ? Had sought the door, the window, in his flight, Striving for dear existence ? What shrieking spirit in that bloody room Across the sunbeam, and along the wall, O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, The place is haunted! THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. "Drowned! drowned!"-HAMLET. ONE more unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Take her up tenderly, Look at her garments Touch her not scornfully; Make no deep scrutiny Rash and undutiful: Past all dishonor, Death has left on her Only the beautiful. Still, for all slips of hers, One of Eve's family Wipe those poor lips of hers Oozing so clammily. Loop up her tresses Escaped from the comb, Her fair auburn tresses; Whilst wonderment guesses Where was her home? Who was her father? Who was her mother? Had she a sister? Had she a brother? Or was there a dearer one Still, and a nearer one Yet, than all other? Alas for the rarity O, it was pitiful! Near a whole city full, Sisterly, brotherly, Fatherly, motherly |