University of Virginia Library


254

XXV. A DYING POET'S LOVE

When Heine lay upon his bed of pain
Helpless, the end being near,
Love sought his couch, and sought it like a fane,
Brightening the prospect drear.
Young love was near him on that dying bed.
A young girl's gentle heart
Yearned over Heine's world-worn weary head
And worshipped Heine's Art.
He loved her with the love intense and wild
A genius-spirit brings:
She on this earth of ours as yet a child,—
He 'mid the next world's kings.
So when he died, their spirits could not part.
She held him with her bloom;
She held him with her girlish young live heart:
He held her from the tomb.