Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Fragment of a Ballad

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

Fragment of a Ballad

Many a mile over land and sea

Unsummoned my love returned to me;

I remember not the words he said

But only the trees moaning overhead.

 

And he came ready to take and bear

The cross I had carried for many a year,

But words came slowly one by one

From frozen lips shut still and dumb.

 

How sounded my words so still and slow

To the great strong heart that loved me so,

Who came to save me from pain and wrong

And to comfort me with his love so strong?

 

I felt the wind strike chill and cold

And vapours rise from the red-brown mould;

I felt the spell that held my breath

Bending me down to a living death.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

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