ning gloss
Beneath her speech of all she left unsaid.
As--'in the kitchen,' _rather in the way,_
_Poor thing_; 'busy on breakfast,' _awkward time_,
_Indeed, for one must live and lodgers' meals_,
_You know, must be attended to what comes_--
(Or goes, I added for her) _yes! indeed_.
'"She's gone at last," I said,' _and better perhaps_,
_For what had life for her but suffering?_
_And then, we're only poor, sir, John and I_,
_And she indeed was somewhat of a strain_:
_O! yes, it's for the best for all of us_.
And still beneath all else methought I read
'_What will the lodgers think, having the dead_
_Within the house! how inconvenient!_'

What did the lodgers think? Well, I replied
In grief's set phrase, but 'the first floor,'
I fancy, frowned at first, as though indeed
Landladies' sisters had no right to die
And taint the air for nervous lodger folk;
Then smoothed his brow out into decency,
And said, 'how sad!' and presently inquired
The day of burial, ending with the hope
His lunch would not be late like yesterday.
The maiden-lady living near the roof
Quoted Isaiah may be, or perhaps Job--
How the Lord gives, and likewise takes away,
And how exceeding blessed is the Lord!--
For she has pious features; while downstairs
Two 'medicals'--both 'decent' lads enough--
Hearkened the story out like gentlemen,
And said the right thing--almost looked it too!
Though all the while within them laughed a sea
Of student mirth, which for full half an hour
They stifled well, but then could hold no more,
As soon their mad piano testified:
While in the kitchen dinner was toward
With hiss and bubble from the cooking stove,
And now a laugh from John ran up the stairs,
And a voice called aloud--of boiling pans.

'So soon,' reflected I, 'the waters of life
Close o'er the sunken head!' Reflected _I_,
Not that in truth I was more pitiful
To the poor dead than those about me were,
Nay, but a trick of thinking much on Life
And Death i' the piece giveth each little strand
More deep significance--love for the whole
Must make us tender for the parts, methinks,
As in some souls the equal law holds true,
Sorrow for one makes sorrow for the world.
A fallen leaf or a dead flower indeed
Has made me just as sad, or some poor bee
Dead in the early summer--what's the odds?
Death was at '48,' and yet what sign?
Who seemed to know? who could have known that called?
For not a blind was lower than its wont--
'The lodgers would not like them