dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  653. The Death-bed

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Thomas Hood. 1798–1845

653. The Death-bed

WE watch’d her breathing thro’ the night, 
  Her breathing soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 
  Kept heaving to and fro. 
 
So silently we seem’d to speak,         5
  So slowly moved about, 
As we had lent her half our powers 
  To eke her living out. 
 
Our very hopes belied our fears, 
  Our fears our hopes belied—  10
We thought her dying when she slept, 
  And sleeping when she died. 
 
For when the morn came dim and sad, 
  And chill with early showers, 
Her quiet eyelids closed—she had  15
  Another morn than ours.