Chapter XXII

I slept; but yet I was not dead
For breath still fluttered nigh;
And now, a strain of music shed,
Came mournful as a sigh!
Was it some spirit’s harp I heard,
Far in the land of dreams?
Was it the song of Eden’s bird?
Was it the lull of streams?
What was it? for I did not know
But ’twas an angel band
Come down, to bear me from below,
Up to the Spirit-land!

It murmur’d—rose—swell’d high and clear:
Then sunk, and sunk away, like Fear
Holding her breath. Again, it swell’d!
I thought some fairy’s death-peal knell’d.