"With breathless speed, like a soul in chase,
I took him up and ran;--
There was no time to dig a grave
Before the day began:
In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves,
I hid the murder'd man!"
XXXI.
"And all that day I read in school,
But my thought was other where;
As soon as the mid-day task was done,
In secret I was there:
And a mighty wind had swept the leaves,
And still the corse was bare!"
XXXII.
"Then down I cast me on my face,
And first began to weep,
For I knew my secret then was one
That earth refused to keep:
Or land or sea, though he should be
Ten thousand fathoms deep."
XXXIII.
"So wills the fierce avenging Sprite,
Till blood for blood atones!
Ay, though he's buried in a cave,
And trodden down with stones,
And years have rotted off his flesh,--
The world shall see his bones!"
XXXIV.
"Oh, God! that horrid, horrid dream
Besets me now awake!
Again again, with dizzy brain,
The human life I take;
And my red right hand grows raging hot,
Like Cranmer's at the stake."
XXXV.
"And still no peace for the restless clay
Will wave or mould allow;
The horrid thing pursues my soul,--
It stands before me now!"
The fearful Boy look'd up, and saw
Huge drops upon his brow.
XXXVI.
That very night, while gentle sleep
The urchin eyelids kiss'd,
Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,
Through the cold and heavy mist;
And Eugene Aram walk'd between.
With gyves upon his wrist.
SONNET.
FOR THE 14TH OF FEBRUARY.
No popular respect will I omit
To do thee honor on this happy day,
When every loyal lover tasks his wit
His simple truth in studious rhymes to pay,
And to his mistress dear his hopes convey.
Rather thou knowest I would still outrun
All calendars with Love's,--whose date alway
Thy bright eyes govern better than the Sun,--
For with thy favor was my life begun;
And still I reckon on from smiles to smiles,
And not by summers, for I thrive on none
But those thy cheerful countenance complies:
Oh! if it be to choose and call thee mine,
Love, thou art every day my Valentine.
THE DEATH-BED.[10]
[Footnote 10: _The Englishman's Magazine_, August 1831. This magazine
was a venture of Edward Moxon, the publisher, but had a career of only
seven months. It is memorable, however, for including, besides the
above and various papers by Charles Lamb, poetical contributions from
Tennyson and Arthur Hallam, and also for containing the review by the
latter of Tennyson's first volume of poems, published in 1830. The
beautiful stanzas of Hood's appear here, as far as I have discovered,
for the first time. The date of their composition remains unfixed.
Hood's son was under the impression that they were written on the death
of one of his father's sisters, but supplied no evidence bearing on the
question.]
We watch'd her breathing through the night.
Her breathing soft and low,
As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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