Still they cried, as from doom's portal, "Soul of sorrow! murm'ring mortal!" Shrieking all around me as I floated with the wind, Ever borne away and crying, Every bell-tone swiftly flying O'er the silent city, to its slumber now consigned. Hurried round each airy tower, Writhing with the unseen power Vainly, for a spirit-chain each struggling limb would bind; Doomed to hear those words repelling, Ever on my senses knelling, Still--a booming hurricane--we wrestled with the wind. Sweeping o'er the sluggish river, Where dark piles the waves dissever, 'Neath the bridges, by the shipping, Sluice-gates, with the waters dripping, By the rustling, moaning rushes, Where the tribute-water gushes; Forced to gaze on ghastly faces, Where the dread one left his traces, Faces of the suicide, the murdered floated on, Whose blue, leaden lips, unclosing, Shrieked out words, my brain that froze in, Crying I had stayed my help in hours long passed and gone. "Hopeless, hopeless!" ever crying, "Hopeless we are round you dying, Asking vainly for the aid withheld in selfish grasp; Hopeless, from the crime that's breeding, Ever to new horrors leading, Horrors, growing, flow'ring, seeding, Soon to spread a poison round more deadly than the asp." Still an unseen presence bound me; Still the bells were shrieking round me, "Soul of sorrow! murm'ring mortal!" "Soul of sorrow! murm'ring mortal!" Rising, falling, ever calling, Thought and mem'ry, soul appalling, Borne away and louder crying, In the distance softly dying; Here in gentle murmurs sighing, Then again far higher flying, Swiftly o'er the houses hieing; While around these fear-begetters Bound me in their brazen fetters. On I sped with brain on fire, 'Mid the bell-tones, higher, higher, List'ning to their words upbraiding, Each with dread my soul new lading. Now away, the mighty chorus Swept around a church before us, In whose yard were paupers lying. From their graves I heard them crying, Joining in the words upbraiding, Loudly piercing, softly fading: "Soul of sorrow! murm'ring mortal!" "Soul of sorrow! murm'ring mortal!" "Cease your murmurs, cease your sorrow, From our fate a lesson borrow: Never heeded, lost to pity, Dying round you through the city. Leave us to our peaceful sleeping, Freed from hunger, care, and weeping."