Love's Apparition and Evanishment:  An Allegoric Romance

          Like a lone Arab, old and blind, 
          Some caravan had left behind,
          Who sits beside a ruin'd well,
          Where the shy sand-asps bask and swell;
          And now he hangs his ag{'e}d head aslant,
          And listens for a human sound--in vain!
          And now the aid, which Heaven alone can grant,
          Upturns his eyeless face from Heaven to gain;--
          Even thus, in vacant mood, one sultry hour,
          Resting my eye upon a drooping plant,
          With brow low-bent, within my garden-bower,
          I sate upon the couch of camomile;
          And--whether 'twas a transient sleep, perchance,
          Flitted across the idle brain, the while
          I watch'd the sickly calm with aimless scope,
          In my own heart; or that, indeed a trance,
          Turn'd my eye inward--thee, O genial Hope,
          Love's elder sister! thee did I behold
          Drest as a bridesmaid, but all pale and cold,
          With roseless cheek, all pale and cold and dim,
           Lie lifeless at my feet!
          And then came Love, a sylph in bridal trim,
          And stood beside my seat;
          She bent, and kiss'd her sister's lips,
          As she was wont to do;--
          Alas! 'twas but a chilling breath
          Woke just enough of life in death
          To make Hope die anew.

          - Samuel Taylor Coleridge