Page:Le Tombeau de Théophile Gautier, 1873.djvu/175

Then Death took Love by the right hand and said,
Smiling : Come now and look upon thy dead.
     But Love cast down the glories of his eyes
And bowed down like a flower his flowerless head.

And Death spake, saying : What ails thee in such wise,
Being god, to shut thy sight up from the skies?
     If thou canst see not, hast thou ears to hear?
Or is thy soul too as a leaf that dies?

Even as he spake with fleshless lips of fear,
But soft as sleep sings in a tired man’s ear,
     Behold, the winter was not, and its might
Fell, and fruits broke forth of the barren year.

And upon earth was largess of great light,
And moving music winged for world-wide flight,
     And shapes and sounds of gods beheld and heard,
And day’s foot set upon the neck of night.

And with such song the hollow ways were stirred
As of a god’s heart hidden in a bird,
     Or as the whole soul of the sun in spring
Should find full utterance in one flower-soft word,

And all the season should break forth and sing
From one flower’s lips, in one rose triumphing;
     Such breath and light of song as of a flame
Made ears and spirits of them that heard it ring.