Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti

Emily Brontë (1818–1848)

A Death-Scene

‘O DAY! he cannot die

When thou so fair art shining!

O Sun, in such a glorious sky,

So tranquilly declining;

He cannot leave thee now,

While fresh west winds are blowing,

And all around his youthful brow

Thy cheerful light is glowing!

Edward, awake, awake—

The golden evening gleams

Warm and bright on Arden’s lake—

Arouse thee from thy dreams!

Beside thee, on my knee,

My dearest friend, I pray

That thou, to cross the eternal sea,

Wouldst yet one hour delay:

I hear its billows roar—

I see them foaming high;

But no glimpse of a further shore

Has blest my straining eye.

Believe not what they urge

Of Eden isles beyond;

Turn back, from that tempestuous surge,

To thy own native land.

It is not death, but pain

That struggles in thy breast—

Nay, rally, Edward, rouse again;

I cannot let thee rest!’

One long look, that sore reproved me

For the woe I could not bear—

One mute look of suffering moved me

To repent my useless prayer:

And, with sudden check, the heaving

Of distraction passed away;

Not a sign of further grieving

Stirred my soul that awful day.

Paled, at length, the sweet sun setting;

Sunk to peace the twilight breeze:

Summer dews fell softly, wetting

Glen, and glade, and silent trees.

Then his eyes began to weary,

Weighed beneath a mortal sleep;

And their orbs grew strangely dreary,

Clouded, even as they would weep.

But they wept not, but they changed not,

Never moved, and never closed;

Troubled still, and still they ranged not—

Wandered not, nor yet reposed!

So I knew that he was dying—

Stooped, and raised his languid head;

Felt no breath, and heard no sighing,

So I knew that he was dead.