6. If I had wronged you, you would answer me Is this a dream, a falsehood? or have I "The very truth!" A voice replied; and at his side he saw A form, half shadow and half substance, stand, It had no footing, mōre than some dense mist That wavers o'er the surface of the ground It scarcely touches. With a reverent look, The shadow's waste and wretched face was bent And fearful wonder, its devouring gaze. 7. "You make what God makes-beauty," said the shape, 8. Or what to God would be that selfsame power, "And yet the love thus mourned She would have been your own. These contraries 9. 10. "The same, O phantom, while the heart I bear "If I wake for you Mocking the answer. Carlo paled and shook; 66 "Dare not! As Christ was sinless, I abjure Have you no dream of days that might have been, I tell you that this tranquil dream may be 11. He outspread his wings, And all the chapel darkened, as if hell Had swallowed up the tapers; and the air Slowly and calmly through the dense obscure, my deliverance from your toils. I stand Adown his wings there poured a lambent flood, And o'er the tresses of his beaming head Arose a stream of many-colored light, Like that which crowns the morning. Carlo stood The outstretched palms of his untainted soul Toward heaven for strength. A moment thus; then asked, With reverential wonder quivering through His sinking voice, "Who, spirit, and what art thou?" 13. “I am that blessing which men fly from-Death.”. |