Page:Christabel, Kubla Khan, The Pains of Sleep - Coleridge (1816).djvu/25

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
CHRISTABEL.
13

Save the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall,
Which hung in a murky old nitch in the wall.
O softly tread, said Christabel,
My father seldom sleepeth well.

Sweet Christabel her feet she bares,
And they are creeping up the stairs;
Now in glimmer, and now in gloom,
And now they pass the Baron's room,
As still as death with stifled breath!
And now have reach'd her chamber door;
And now with eager feet press down
The rushes of her chamber floor.

The moon shines dim in the open air,
And not a moonbeam enters here.
But they without its light see
The chamber carv'd so curiously,