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just had to post this poem i was sent







I found a corpse, with glittering hair,

Of a woman whose face, tho' dead,

The white death in it had left still fair,

Too fair for an earthly bed!

So I loosened each fold of her bright curls roll'd

From forehead to foot in a rush of red gold,

And kissed her lips till her lips were red,

And warm and light on her eyelids white

I breath'd, and pressed unto mine her breast,

Till the blue eyes opened and the breast grew warm,

And this woman, behold! arose up bold,

And lifelike lifting a wilful arm,

With steady feet from the winding sheet

Stepp'd forth to a mutter'd charm.



And now beside me, whatever betide me,

This woman is, night and day.

For she cleaves to me so, that, wherever I go

She is with me the whole of the way.

And her eyes are so bright in the dead of the night,

That they keep me awake with dread;

While my life blood pales in my veins and fails,

Because her red lips are so red

That I fear 'tis my heart she must eat for her food;

And it makes my whole flesh creep

To think she is drinking and draining my blood,

Unawares, if I chance to sleep.



It were better for me, ere I came nigh her, -

This corpse, - ere I looked upon her, -

Had they burn'd my body with penal fire

With a sorcerer's dishonour.

For when the devil has made his lair

In the living eyes of a dear dead woman,

(To bind a man's strength by her golden hair,

And break his heart, if his heart be human),

Is there any penance, or any prayer,

That may save the sinner whose soul he tries

To catch in the curse of the constant stare

Of those heartbreaking bewildering eyes, -

Comfortless, cavernous glowworms that glare

From the gaping grave where a dead hope lies?

It is more than the soul of a man may bear.

For the misery worst of all miseries

Is Desire eternally feeding Despair

On the flesh, or the blood, that forever supplies

Life more than enough to keep fresh in repair

The death ever dying, which yet never dies.