Poems By William Bell Scott. Ballads, Studies from Nature, Sonnets, etc. Illustrated by Seventeen Etchings by the Author and L. Alma Tadema |
 |
 |
|
|
| I. |
| II. | II
DEATH.
|
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | Poems |  |
74
II
DEATH.
Again that stage was vacant, that dusk crowd
Was murmuring as before: again that hand
Gathered the curtain; I saw rise and stand
Against the inmost blackness like a cloud,
No feature seen, but o'er his brows a proud
Spiked crown that held the thick mist clothing him,
A strong imperious creature, tall and slim,
And hateful too, thus hid within that shroud.
Was murmuring as before: again that hand
Gathered the curtain; I saw rise and stand
Against the inmost blackness like a cloud,
No feature seen, but o'er his brows a proud
Spiked crown that held the thick mist clothing him,
A strong imperious creature, tall and slim,
And hateful too, thus hid within that shroud.
Stooping he raised within his long thin arms
A scared old man and rolled him up, and fled:
And all the crowd shrieked out, and muttering charms,
Threw down their fiddle-bows and merchandise,—
Around the stark corpse knelt with suppliant cries,
Nor ceased still wondering where was gone—the dead!
A scared old man and rolled him up, and fled:
And all the crowd shrieked out, and muttering charms,
Threw down their fiddle-bows and merchandise,—
Around the stark corpse knelt with suppliant cries,
Nor ceased still wondering where was gone—the dead!
| Poems | |