The Complete Poems of Emily Brontë/Yet o'er his face a solemn light

by Emily Brontë

LXII

Yet o'er his face a solemn light
Comes smiling from the sky,
And shows to sight the lustre bright
Of his uplifted eye;
The aimless, heedless carelessness
Of happy infancy
O'er such a solemn fearfulness
Commingling with his glee,
The parted lips, the golden hair;
Oh who so blest as thee!
Memory! how thy magic fingers,
With a wild and passing thrill,
Wake the cord whose spirit lingers,
Sleeping silently and still,
Fast asleep and almost dying,
Through my days of changeless pain,
Till I dream the strings are lying,
Never to be waked again.
Winds have blown, but all unknown;
Nothing could arouse a tone
In that heart which like a stone
Senselessly has lain.
All seemed over—friend and lover
Strove to waken music there;
Flow the strings their fingers over,
Still in silence swept the air.
Memory! Memory comes at last,
Memory of feelings past,
And with an Æolian blast
Strikes the strings resistlessly.