Ha! see where the wild-blazing Grog-shop appears, As the red waves of wretchedness swell; How it burns on the edge of tempestuous years The horrible Light-house of Hell!
There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea, Or in the wide desert where no life is found.
Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied; We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died.
The Death-Bed.
Note 1. Variant: While twilights curtain gathering far Is pinned with a single diamond star. Mrs. Child says: He thus describes the closing day: Now twilight lets her curtain down, And pins it with a star. See Hood: Dream of Eugene Aram. And drew my midnight curtain with fingers bloody red. Cf. W. R. Alger, The Use of the Moon. The moon is a silver pinhead vast That holds the heavens tent-hangings fast. [back]