He was a tyrant to the weak,
And we were such, alas the day!
Oft, when my little ones at play,
Were in youth's natural lightness gay,
Or if they listened to some tale265
Of travellers, or of fairy land,—
When the light from the wood-fire's dying brand
Flashed on their faces,—if they heard
Or thought they heard upon the stair
His footstep, the suspended word270
Died on my lips: we all grew pale:
The babe at my bosom was hushed with fear
If it thought it heard its father near;
And my two wild boys would near my knee
Cling, cowed and cowering fearfully.275
I'll tell thee truth: I loved another.
His name in my ear was ever ringing,
His form to my brain was ever clinging?
Yet if some stranger breathed that name,
My lips turned white, and my heart beat fast:280
My nights were once haunted by dreams of flame,
My days were dim in the shadow cast[1]
By the memory of the same!
Day and night, day and night,
He was my breath and life and light,285
For three short years, which soon were past.
On[2] the fourth, my gentle mother
Led me to the shrine, to be
His sworn bride eternally.
- ↑ In Shelley's and Mrs. Shelley's editions, there is a comma at cast.
- ↑ Mr. Rossetti reads In, and suggests "printer's error" as the explanation of On. I think on is the preposition of Shelley's choice, and that he meant to make use of an elliptical construction,—"On the dawn or coming of the fourth." In would be very vague; and I do not see that it has any but a pedagogic advantage over on, if even it has that.
