MARIANA. "Mariana in the moated grange."-Measure for Measure. WITH blackest moss the flower-plots Upon the lonely moated grange. She only said, "My life is dreary, He cometh not," she said; Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven, Either at morn or eventide. After the flitting of the bats, When thickest dark did trance the sky, She drew her casement-curtain by, And glanced athwart the glooming flats. She only said, "The night is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, “I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!' Upon the middle of the night, Waking she heard the night-fowl crow : The cock sung out an hour ere light: From the dark fen the oxen's low Came to her without hope of change, : In sleep she seem'd to walk forlorn, Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn About the lonely moated grange. She only said, "The day is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, "I am aweary, aweary, About a stone-cast from the wall A sluice with blacken'd waters slept, Hard by a poplar shook alway, All silver-green with gnarled bark: She only said, "My life is dreary, And ever when the moon was low, away, She saw the gusty shadow sway. Upon her bed, across her brow. She only said, "The night is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, "I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead! دو All day within the dreamy house, The doors upon their hinges creak'd; The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd, Or from the crevice peer'd about. She only said, "My life is dreary, The sparrow's chirrup on the roof, He will not come," she said; She wept, "I am aweary, aweary, Oh God, that I were dead!" ΤΟ 1. CLEAR-HEADED friend, whose joyful scorn, Roof not a glance so keen as thine: 2. Low-cowering shall the Sophist sit; A gentler death shall Falsehood die, Shot thro' and thro' with cunning words. |