Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON A DEAD GIRL, by ALFRED DE MUSSET


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A DEAD GIRL, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Lovely she was, if so be night
Last Line: Whereof she never spelt a word.
Subject(s): Death; Youth; Dead, The


LOVELY she was, if so be Night
That slumbers in the sombre shrine,
There laid by sculptor Michael's might
Unmoving in her marble line.

And she was kind, if it suffice
To succour with unheeding face,
And give unseen of God's wide eyes;
If heartless gold have any grace.

She pondered, if the idle stir
And gentle lilt of phrases low,
As plaintive as a brook, aver
That the shy brook doth ponder so.

She prayed, if two so lovely eyes
From downward gaze and upward glance
In flight from earth toward the skies,
May earn the name of pray'r perchance.

She might have smiled, if flowers shy
That yet within the bud are sealed,
Might open when the wind goes by
And leaves their longing all unhealed.

She might have wept, if her white hand
That coldly o'er her heart is set
Had ever human body spanned
With dews of heavenly odour wet.

She might have loved, had pride allowed
That ever kept its vigil vain,
And like a lamp set by a shroud,
Shone in her barren heart's domain.

The hue of seeming life she wore;
And she has died by life unstirred.
The book is fallen to the floor
Whereof she never spelt a word.





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