I. How shall the burial rite be read? The solemn song be sung? The requiem for the loveliest dead, That ever died so young? II. Her friends are gazing on her, And on her gaudy bier, And weep!—oh! to dishonor Dead beauty with a tear! III. They loved her for her wealth— And they hated her for her pride— But she grew in feeble health, And they _love_ her—that she died. IV. They tell me (while they speak Of her “costly broider’d pall”) That my voice is growing weak— That I should not sing at all— V. Or that my tone should be Tun’d to such solemn song So mournfully—so mournfully, That the dead may feel no wrong. VI. But she is gone above, With young Hope at her side, And I am drunk with love Of the dead, who is my bride.— VII. Of the dead—dead who lies All perfum’d there, With the death upon her eyes, And the life upon her hair. VIII. Thus on the coffin loud and long I strike—the murmur sent Through the grey chambers to my song, Shall be the accompaniment. IX. Thou died’st in thy life’s June— But thou did’st not die too fair: Thou did’st not die too soon, Nor with too calm an air. X. From more than friends on earth, Thy life and love are riven, To join the untainted mirth Of more than thrones in heaven— XII. Therefore, to thee this night I will no requiem raise, But waft thee on thy flight, With a Pæan of old days. NOTES 30. On the “Poems written in Youth” little comment is needed. This section includes the pieces printed for first volume of 1827 (which was subsequently suppressed), such poems from the first and second published volumes of 1829 and 1831 as have not already been given in their revised versions, and a few others collected from various sources. “Al Aaraaf” first appeared, with the sonnet “To Silence” prefixed to it, in 1829, and is, substantially, as originally issued. In the edition for 1831, however, this poem, its author’s longest, was introduced by the following twenty-nine lines, which have been omitted in—all subsequent collections: