Bring Forth Ye Shadow

<br>Time is an abyss -<br>Profound as a thousand nights;<br>I sojourn my haste, I make respites<br>For what availeth this eager peace?<br>One step more naught to face,<br>Save the heirloom fatal kiss.<br>I rave no more `gainst Time or Fate,<br>For lo! my own shall ne`er come to me,<br>Yet! - Who doth my future narrate?<br>Dim the lights - I cannot see!<br>Bring forth ye Shadow! -<br>With whom danceth thou?<br>Time hath stopp`d -<br>Yet for others ne`er halteth;<br>For me the Pages of Life do not turn,<br>Lo! - on the funeral pyre they burn.<br>The oh so eathing Velvet Darkness they fear -<br>Heed! - wherefore delve a burrow,<br>When in my arms "O! Come here"? -<br>I say, elsehither is naught but sorrow!<br>For what deemest thou so dear thy blood<br>When through my veins it could flood? -<br>Bide to merry-make me unaptly;<br>And hence grant me the fell gift,<br>The gift of passing on the dark trick.<br>`Tis such a brazen act of erotic;<br>Trifle for thee, yet for me grandly thrift,<br>O! such an innocence depriv`d so hastily -<br>Alas, for what deemest thou so dear thy blood<br>When through my veins it will flood?