Love's Appartition and Evanishment[;] An Allegoric Romance

1. 1Like a lone Arab, old and blind,
2. 2Some caravan had left behind,
3. 3Who sits beside a ruin'd well,
4. 4Where the shy sand-asps bask and swell;
5. 5And now he hangs his agéd head aslant,
6. 6And listens for a human sound--in vain!
7. 7And now the aid, which Heaven alone can grant,
8. 8Upturns his eyeless face from Heaven to gain;--
9. 9Even thus, in vacant mood, one sultry hour,
10. 10Resting my eye upon a drooping plant,
11. 11With brow low-bent, within my garden-bower,
12. 12I sate upon the couch of camomile;
13. 13And--whether 'twas a transient sleep, perchance,
14. 14Flitted across the idle brain, the while
15. 15I watch'd the sickly calm with aimless scope,
16. 16In my own heart; or that, indeed a trance,
17. 17Turn'd my eye inward--thee, O genial Hope,
18. 18Love's elder sister! thee did I behold,
19. 19Drest as a bridesmaid, but all pale and cold,
20. 20With roseless cheek, all pale and cold and dim,
21. 21Lie lifeless at my feet!
22. 22And then came Love, a sylph in bridal trim,
23. 23And stood beside my seat;
24. 24She bent, and kiss'd her sister's lips,
25. 25As she was wont to do;--
26. 26Alas! 'twas but a chilling breath
27. 27Woke just enough of life in death
28. 28To make Hope die anew.

1. 29In vain we supplicate the Powers above;
2. 30There is no resurrection for the Love
3. 31That, nursed in tenderest care, yet fades away
4. 32In the chill'd heart by gradual self-decay.