Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 020.djvu/21
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1826.]
The Owl.
15
He look’d at now reproachfully,That she could smile, and shine, while heHad withered ’neath such cruel blight.He hooted her—but still she shone—And then away—alone! alone!—
The wheel of time went round once more,And his weary wing him backward bore,Urged by some strange destinyAgain to the well-known forest tree,Where the stranger he saw at night,With the lovely Lady bright.
The Owl was dozing—but a strokeStrong on the root of the sturdy oakShook him from his reverie—He looked down, and he might seeA stranger close to the hollow tree!His looks were haggard, wild, and bad,Yet the Owl knew in the man, the ladWho had destroyed him!—he was glad!
And the lovely Lady too was there,But now no longer bright nor fair;She was lying on the ground,Mute and motionless, no soundCame from her coral lips, for theyWere seal’d in blood; and, as she lay,Her locks, of the sun’s most golden gleam,Were dabbled in the crimson streamThat from a wound on her bosom white—(Ah! that Man’s hand could such impressOn that sweet seat of loveliness)—Welled, a sad and ghastly sight,And ran all wildly forth to meetAnd cling around the Murderer’s feet.
He was digging a grave—the BirdShriek’d aloud—the Murderer heardOnce again that boding scream,And saw again those wild eyes gleam—And “Curse on the Fiend!” he cried, and flungHis mattock up—it caught and hung—The Felon stood a while aghast—Then fled through the forest, fast, fast, fast!
The hardened Murderer hath fled—But the Owl kept watch by the shroudless dead,Until came friends with the early day,And bore the mangled corse away—Then, cutting the air all silently,He fled away from his hollow tree.
Why is the crowd so great to-day,And why do the people shout “huzza?”And why is yonder Felon givenAlone to feed the birds of Heaven?Had he no friend, now all is done,To give his corse a grave?—Not one!
Night has fallen. What means that cry?It descends from the gibbet high—There sits on its top a lonely Owl,With a staring eye, and a dismal scowl;And he screams aloud, “Revenge is sweet!”His mortal foe is at his feet!