'"I lost him, and the silent room, Where soon at rest I lay, Began to darken, 'neath the gloom Of twilight's dull decay; So, sobbing as my heart would break, And blind with gushing eyes, Hours seemed whole nights to me awake, And day as 'twould not rise. I almost prayed that I might die-- But then the thought would come That, if I did, my corpse must lie In yonder dismal tomb; Until, methought, I saw its stone, By moonshine glistening clear, While Caroline's bright form alone Kept silent watching there: All white with angel's wings she seemed, And indistinct to see; But when the unclouded moonlight beamed I saw her beckon me, And fade, thus beckoning, while the wind Around that midnight wall, To me--now lingering years behind-- Seemed then my sister's call! '"And thus it brought me back the hours When we, at rest together, Used to lie listening to the showers Of wild December weather; Which, when, as oft, they woke in her The chords of inward thought, Would fill with pictures that wild air, From far off memories brought; So, while I lay, I heard again Her silver-sounding tongue, Rehearsing some remembered strain Of old times long agone! And, flashed across my spirit's sight, What she had often told me-- When, laid awake on Christmas night, Her sheltering arms would fold me-- About that midnight-seeming day, Whose gloom o'er Calvary thrown, Showed trembling Nature's deep dismay At what her sons had done: When sacred Salem's murky air Was riven with the cry, Which told the world how mortals dare The Immortal crucify; When those who, sorrowing, sat afar, With aching heart and eye, Beheld their great Redeemer there, 'Mid sneers and scoffings die; When all His earthly vigour fled, When thirsty faintness bowed His head, When His pale limbs were moistened o'er With deathly dews and dripping gore, When quivered all His worn-out frame, As Death, triumphant, quenched life's flame, When upward gazed His glazing eyes To those tremendous-seeming skies, When burst His cry of agony-- 'My God!--my God!--hast Thou forsaken me!' My youthful feelings startled then, As if the temple, rent in twain, Horribly pealing on my ear With its deep thunder note of fear, Wrapping the world in general gloom, As if her God's were Nature's tomb; While sheeted ghosts before my gaze Passed, flitting 'mid the dreary maze, As if rejoicing at the day When death--their king--o'er Heaven had sway. In glistening charnel damps arrayed, They seemed to gibber round my head, Through night's drear void directing me Toward still and solemn Calvary, Where gleamed that cross with steady shine Around the thorn-crowned head divine--