The Magnetic Lady to her Patient

I

'Sleep, sleep on! forget thy pain;

   My hand is on thy brow,

My spirit on thy brain;

My pity on thy heart, poor friend;

   And from my fingers flow

The powers of life, and like a sign,

   Seal thee from thine hour of woe;

And brood on thee, but may not blend

   With thine.

II

'Sleep, sleep on! I love thee not;

   But when I think that he

Who made and makes my lot

As full of flowers as thine of weeds,

   Might have been lost like thee;

And that a hand which was not mine

   Might then have charmed his agony

As I another's—my heart bleeds

   For thine.

III

'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of

   The dead and the unborn

Forget thy life and love;

Forget that thou must wake forever;

   Forget the world's dull scorn;

Forget lost health, and the divine

   Feelings which died in youth's brief morn;

And forget me, for I can never

   Be thine.

IV

   'Like a cloud big with a May shower,

   My soul weeps healing rain

On thee, thou withered flower!

It breathes mute music on thy sleep;

   Its odour calms thy brain!

Its light within thy gloomy breast

   Spreads like a second youth again.

By mine thy being is to its deep

   Possessed.

V

'The spell is done. How feel you now?'

   'Better—Quite well,' replied

   The sleeper.—'What would do

You good when suffering and awake?

   What cure your head and side?—'

'What would cure, that would kill me, Jane:

   And as I must on earth abide

Awhile, yet tempt me not to break

   My chain.'