University of Virginia Library


14

THE SPELL-STRUCK

She walks as she were moving
Some mystic dance to tread,
So falls her gliding footstep,
So leans her list'ning head;
For once to fairy harping
She danced upon the hill,
And through her brain and bosom
The music pulses still.
Her eyes are bright and tearless,
But wide with yearning pain:
She longs for nothing earthly,
But oh, to hear again
The sound that held her breathless
Upon her moonlit path—
The golden fairy music
That filled the lonely rath!
Her lips have felt strange kisses
And drunk the wine of death,
Nor earthly love nor laughter
Shall stir their tender breath.
She's dead to all things living
Since that November Eve,
And when They call her earthward,
No living thing will grieve.