20
THE LOVERS' LAST MEETING.
At length
The thought that they must part stole on their souls
Like the deep shadow of a thunder-cloud.
She strove to drive that fearful thought away,
But there it stood, a fiend between her soul
And her bright heaven of joy. Beneath the weight
Of her great grief, her head sank down, as bends
The lily's pale and broken cup beneath
The torrents of the cloud. And then with low,
Sweet tones of tenderness, though his own heart
Was bursting with its stifled rush of tears,
He soothed her fearful agony. He spoke
Of joys and raptures past but treasured still
In memory's sacred chambers, of the hope
That even then seemed shining with a dim
And pale but beauteous gleam upon the waves
Of the far distant future. Thus he won
Her spirit from its dark and crushing grief,
And bade her turn her thoughts from earth, and look
Above life's clouds for perfect happiness
Within the skies. He told her how they two
The thought that they must part stole on their souls
Like the deep shadow of a thunder-cloud.
She strove to drive that fearful thought away,
But there it stood, a fiend between her soul
And her bright heaven of joy. Beneath the weight
Of her great grief, her head sank down, as bends
The lily's pale and broken cup beneath
The torrents of the cloud. And then with low,
Sweet tones of tenderness, though his own heart
Was bursting with its stifled rush of tears,
He soothed her fearful agony. He spoke
Of joys and raptures past but treasured still
In memory's sacred chambers, of the hope
That even then seemed shining with a dim
And pale but beauteous gleam upon the waves
Of the far distant future. Thus he won
Her spirit from its dark and crushing grief,
And bade her turn her thoughts from earth, and look
Above life's clouds for perfect happiness
Within the skies. He told her how they two
