1.
"Deep in my soul that tender secret dwells,
Lonely and lost to light for evermore,
Save when to thine my heart responsive swells,
Then trembles into silence as before.350
2.
"There, in its centre, a sepulchral lamp
Burns the slow flame, eternal—but unseen;
Which not the darkness of Despair can damp,
Though vain its ray as it had never been.
3.
"Remember me—Oh! pass not thou my grave
Without one thought whose relics there recline:
The only pang my bosom dare not brave
Must be to find forgetfulness in thine.
4.
"My fondest—faintest—latest accents hear—[1]
Grief for the dead not Virtue can reprove;360
Then give me all I ever asked—a tear,[2]
The first—last—sole reward of so much love!"
He passed the portal, crossed the corridor,
And reached the chamber as the strain gave o'er:
"My own Medora! sure thy song is sad—"
"In Conrad's absence would'st thou have it glad?
Without thine ear to listen to my lay,
- ↑ Yet heed my prayer—my latest accents hear.—[MS.]
- ↑ [Compare —
"He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend."
Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard.]
