 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
DEATH OF CORINNE.
(1828.)
All pale, and pillow'd on a chair she lay,
The beautiful, the passionate Corinne!
The brilliant language of her eyes no more
Darted around such eloquence of soul,
As when, amid the crowd, her feelings flash'd
The bright expression forth; while she herself
Was living poetry! Deep pensiveness,
And looks intense which tell the blighted heart,
Of coming death prophetically spake!
The beautiful, the passionate Corinne!
The brilliant language of her eyes no more
Darted around such eloquence of soul,
As when, amid the crowd, her feelings flash'd
The bright expression forth; while she herself
Was living poetry! Deep pensiveness,
And looks intense which tell the blighted heart,
Of coming death prophetically spake!
Ere yet her spirit breathed itself to heaven,
She yearn'd, upon the shrouded moon to gaze,
Silvering the mellow skies. Athwart her face
Floated that fatal cloud! the same she saw
When Melville woo'd her by the winding shore:
On him, enamour'd, kneeling at her feet,
She look'd, and in one look condensed
The buried anguish of a broken heart;
Her white lips feebly parted, then reclosed
For ever! Gazing then upon the sky,
She faintly beckon'd to the gleaming moon,
While down her neck her streaming ringlets fell
Like dropping sunbeams on the pallid air.
She yearn'd, upon the shrouded moon to gaze,
Silvering the mellow skies. Athwart her face
Floated that fatal cloud! the same she saw
When Melville woo'd her by the winding shore:
On him, enamour'd, kneeling at her feet,
She look'd, and in one look condensed
The buried anguish of a broken heart;
Her white lips feebly parted, then reclosed
For ever! Gazing then upon the sky,
She faintly beckon'd to the gleaming moon,
While down her neck her streaming ringlets fell
Like dropping sunbeams on the pallid air.
And now a change came on; back the blood retired
Her radiant cheek beneath; her eyelids moved
Like melting snow-flakes in the noontide-glow,
And all her beauty quite empyreal turn'd,
As if refining, ere to heaven it went;
Her hand fell downward with her farewell sigh,
And with eternity her spirit was!
Her radiant cheek beneath; her eyelids moved
Like melting snow-flakes in the noontide-glow,
And all her beauty quite empyreal turn'd,
As if refining, ere to heaven it went;
Her hand fell downward with her farewell sigh,
And with eternity her spirit was!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |