As it lay asleep, as it lay asleep, I set it down in the darkness deep, Smoothed its limbs and laid it out, And drew the curtains around about; Then into the dark, dark room I hied, 95 Where he lay awake at the woman’s side, And, though the chamber was black as night, He saw my face, for it was so white; I gazed in his eyes, and he shrieked in pain, And I knew he would never sleep again, 100 And back to my grave went silently, And soon my baby was brought to me; My son and daughter beside me rest, My little baby is on my breast; Our bed is warm, and our grave is deep, 105 But he cannot sleep, he cannot sleep! _Robert Buchanan._ CCXCV _THE SANDS OF DEE._ ‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands of Dee;’ The western wind was wild and dank with foam, 5 And all alone went she. The creeping tide crept up along the sand, And o’er and o’er the sand, And round and round the sand, As far as eye could see. 10 The blinding mist came down, and hid the land: And never home came she. ‘Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair-- A tress of golden hair, A drownèd maiden’s hair, Above the nets at sea? Was never salmon yet that shone so fair Among the stakes on Dee.’ They rowed her in across the rolling foam, The cruel crawling foam, 20 The cruel hungry foam, To her grave beside the sea: But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home Across the sands of Dee. _Charles Kingsley._ CCXCVI _A DIRGE._ Softly! she is lying With her lips apart: Softly! she is dying Of a broken heart. Whisper! she is going 5 To her final rest: Whisper! life is growing Dim within her breast. Gently! she is sleeping, She has breathed her last: 10 Gently! while you’ are weeping, She to Heaven has past. _Charles Gamage Eastman._ CCXCVII _DEATH AND LIFE._ Her sufferings ended with the day! Yet lived she at its close, And breathed the long long night away In statuelike repose. But when the Sun in all his state 5 Illumed the eastern skies, She passed through glory’s morning gate, And walked in Paradise. _James Aldrich._ CCXCVIII _TITHONUS._