Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
 | I, II, III. |
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A DREAM OF DEATH. |
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 | Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems |  |
A DREAM OF DEATH.
It was a lovely dream—a vision deep,That more belonged to waking than to sleep—
A form I saw more beautiful than Night,
When she is cinctured with her Star-zone bright,
And lovely in her blue transparent gloom,
As Noontide's flush, or Morning's golden bloom!
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Nature's great Soul of Beauty in her face!
Her shadowy, yet her lighted face of love,
The shadows are beneath—the stars above!
While all on Earth doth indistinct appear,
And all in Heaven irradiate shines and clear.
A lovely form I saw—a voice I heard,
And all my Soul was wakened, and was stirred.
A melody of echoes seemed that voice,
And still it cried “Rejoice!”—and still “Rejoice!”
I felt—I knew—the form was Death—crown'd Death!
The pale, pale Angel!—there no hue nor breath
Might speak of Life—no pulse was beating there,
'Twas spiritually, spiritlessly fair!
For still 'twas Spirit-like, and still it seemed
As though no light of Being's truth there beamed.
I knew the voice was Death's—the faint faint voice
That cried “Rejoice!”—and yet again “Rejoice.”
| Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | |