efore thee, the moon is a blot
On the sky where thine own splendors are;
And dark is the day where thy presence is not,
My star, my bright, beautiful star.
SANSON.

TO SANSON

O love, do not call me a star!
'Tis too cold and bright, and too far
Away from your arms; I would be,
The life drops that flow in your veins,
The pulses that throb in your heart.
My bosom should be the warm sea
Of forgetfulness, tinged with the stains
Of the sunset, when day-dreams depart;
You should drink at its fountain of kisses,
Drink mad of its fathomless deep;

Submerged in an ocean of blisses,
I'd be something to kiss and to keep.
Loving, and tender, and true,
I'd be nearer, oh! nearer to you
Than the glittering meteors are;
Then, love, do not call me a star.
REVENITA.

TO REVENITA

Thou'st made for me an atmosphere of life;
The very air is brighter from thine eyes,
They are so soft and beautiful, and rife
With all we can imagine of the skies.

O woman, where is they resistless power;
I swore the livery of Heaven to grace,
Yet stand, to-day, a sacrilegious tower,
Perjured by the witchery of thy face.
SANSON.

TO SANSON

Then, love, I'll give thee back thy perjured vow;
I would not hold thee with one pleading breath;
It may be best to leave the pathway now,
That can but lead to death.
I'll crush the agonies that burning swell,
And say farewell.
REVENITA.

TO REVENITA

"Farewell?" No, not farewell, I'll worship ever
Thy form divine.
No death's despair, no voice of doom shall sever
My heart from thine.

Thou'st crowned me with they love and bade me wear it,
I kiss the shrine.
I will not give thee up, nay, here I swear it,
That thou art mine.
* * * * * * * * * *
A desecrated holiness is o'er me,
I've held the Thyrsus cup;
I've dared the thunderbolts of Heaven for thee,
I will not give up.
SANSON.

World, farewell!
And thou pale tape light, by whose fast-dying flame I write
these words--the last my hand shall pen--farewell! What is't to
die? To be shut in a dungeon's walls and starved to death? She
knows, and soon will I. She sought to learn of me, and I to teach
to her, the mystery of life.