Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ci.Oud Bars, All Purpling-Drifting West,...
I could not sleep—I rose and sat At the moonlit window-pane :
Through , the slanting rays all glorified , Old days came back again .
A silver tissuing of dew , Spread o ' er the level lawn
, The shadowscrouched beneath the trees , Still waited , for the dawn .
The bay-trees moved their black plumed heads , As the moon passed queenly on
, Through great white clouds , and snowy bars , Wreck of the daylight gone .
The moon swam underneath a cloud ; A loom fell on the place ;
g It cast a veil o ' er half the fields , As on a mourner ' s face .
Suddenl That y hid down the , door between below the , vines ,
I heard a hand beat gently twice , And a voice call soft and low .
_0 obdurate heart ! that did not guess The messenger to thee ,
A sinful man : —I knew not then , An angel had come to me .
Slow through the moonlight coloured mist , I heard the voice retreat
, Slow and regretful down the path . I heard the distant feet .
_1 saw a form fade through the light With an averted face ,
And I knew it was an angel then Had visited the place .
Then the dim shadows took the forms Of friends I loved in
youth—Of mother , sister , child , and her With whom I plighted troth .
* Then slow in sad procession , Those shadows paced along ,
My heart beat time—a death-march time , As to a funeral song .
Three times around the moonlit house , ' They paced in funeral train ;
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1863, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061863/page/36/