| |
| OH, Mariamne! now for thee, | |
| The heart for which thou bled’st is bleeding; | |
| Revenge is lost in agony, | |
| And wild remorse to rage succeeding. | |
| Oh! Mariamne! where art thou? | 5 |
| Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: | |
| Ah! couldst thou—thou wouldst pardon now, | |
| Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding. | |
| |
| And is she dead,—and did they dare | |
| Obey my frenzy’s jealous raving? | 10 |
| My wrath but doom’d my own despair: | |
| The sword that smote her o’er me waving. | |
| But thou art cold, my murder’d love! | |
| And this dark heart is vainly craving | |
| For her who soars alone above, | 15 |
| And leaves my soul unworthy saving. | |
| |
| She’s gone, who shar’d my diadem; | |
| She sunk, with her my joys entombing; | |
| I swept that flower from Judah’s stem, | |
| Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; | 20 |
| And mine’s the guilt, and mine the hell, | |
| This bosom’s desolation dooming; | |
| And I have earn’d those tortures well, | |
| Which unconsumed are still consuming! | |
| |
