Chapter XXI

It sunk: I swoon’d: a pang—’twas over!
Nay, nay, for still my life would hover:
The dying lamp would flicker—flicker,
Though breath was low, and sight was thicker.
And I was going, going slowly,
My heart unshrived, my soul unholy,
The sins of mis-spent years upon me,
And follies that had all undone me!
And this I knew not—for ’twas awful,
How I was fill’d with thoughts unlawful;
Thoughts that did make me all forget
What I had left for dying minute;
And I was dying, dying, yet
Forgot that endless death was in it.