Go to the once loved bowers; Wreathe blushing roses for the lady's hair: Winter has been upon the leaves and flowers,They were! Look for the domes of kings; Lo, the owl's fortress, or the tiger's lair! Oblivion sits beside them; mockery sings Waken the minstrel's lute; Bid the smooth pleader charm the listening air: The chords are broken, and the lips are mute; They were! Visit the great and brave; Worship the witcheries of the bright and fair. Is not thy foot upon a new-made grave?— Speak to thine own heart; prove The secrets of thy nature. What is there? Wild hopes, warm fancies, fervent faith, fond love,— We too, we too must fail; A few brief years to labour and to bear ;— Then comes the sexton, and the old trite tale, THE Abbot arose, and closed his book, And wandered forth alone, to look A starlight sky was o'er his head, A quiet breeze around; And the flowers a thrilling fragrance shed It was not an hour, nor a scene, for aught Yet the holy man had a cloud of thought He gazed on the river that gurgled by, But he thought not of the reeds; He clasped his gilded rosary, But he did not tell the beads; If he looked to the heaven, 'twas not to invoke If he opened his lips, the words they spoke A pious priest might the Abbot seem, But what was the theme of the Abbot's dream, Companionless, for a mile or more, As a lover thinks of constancy, Or an advocate of truth. He did not mark how the skies in wrath Grew dark above his head; He did not mark how the mossy path The water had slept for many a year, The surface had the hue of clay And the scent of human blood; The trees and the herbs that round it grew Were venomous and foul, And the birds that through the bushes flew Were the vulture and the owl; The water was as dark and rank As ever a Company pumped, And the perch that was netted and laid on the bank Grew rotten while it jumped ; And bold was he who thither came At midnight, man or boy, For the place was cursed with an evil name, And that name was 66 The Devil's Decoy!" |