The Culprit Fay and Other Poems by Joseph Rodman Drake
page 35 of 67 (52%)
page 35 of 67 (52%)
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Is thrown in restless vacancy around,
Or cast, in gloomy trance, on the cold ground; And still, that breast with maddening passion burns, And hatred, love, and sorrow, rule by turns. A lovely figure! and in happier hour, When pleasure laugh'd abroad from hall and bower, The general eye had deem'd her smiling face The brightest jewel in the courtly place: So glossy is her hair's ensabled wreath, So glowing warm the eye that burns beneath With so much graceful sweetness of address, And such a form of rounded slenderness; Ah! where is he on whom these beauties shine, But deems a spotless soul inhabits such a shrine? And yet a keen observer might espy Strange passions lurking in her deep black eye, And in the lines of her fine lip, a soul That in its every feeling spurned control. They passed unnoted - who will stop to trace A sullying spot on beauty's sparkling face? And no one deemed, amid her glances sweet, Hers was a bosom of impetuous heat; A heart too wildly in its joys elate, Formed but to madly love - or madly hate; A spirit of strong throbs, and steadfast will; To doat, detest, to die for, or to kill; Which, like the Arab chief, would fiercely dare To stab the heart she might no longer share; |
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