| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. The Subject Continued | | By John Watson Dalby |
| | | THE MIRROR of my life, ye lie before me! | |
| Reflecting all its gladness and its gloom;— | |
| There the wild joy ye never may restore me, | |
| That, when I saw ye first, came flushing o’er me; | |
| And there the eternal barrier of the tomb. | 5 |
| Crowding upon me here what memories come, | |
| Glad meeting, pleasant lingering, and gay strolling: | |
| Alas, how briefly shines the vision for me! | |
| Away the glory and the joy are rolling,— | |
| Away the glowing Future which it bore me! | 10 |
| And through the mind, confusing sense and sight, | |
| Comes to my startled ear the death-bell tolling; | |
| And a shroud covers Beauty and Delight, | |
| Mantling the gauds of morn in glooms of night. | | | | |
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