A cypress-bough, and a rose-wreath sweet, A wedding-robe, and a winding-sheet, A bridal bed and a bier. Thine be the kisses, maid, And smiling Love’s… - Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Old Adam, the carrion crow, The old crow of Cairo;
He sat in the shower, and let it flow Under his tail and over his crest; And through every feather Leak’d the wet weather; And the bough swung under his nest; For his beak it was heavy with marrow. Is that the wind dying? O no; It’s only two devils, that blow Through a murderer’s bones, to and fro, In the ghosts’ moonshine.Ho! Eve, my grey carrion wife, When we have supped on kings’ marrow,
Where shall we drink and make merry our life? Our nest it is queen Cleopatra’s skull, ’Tis cloven and crack’d, And batter’d and hack’d, But with tears of blue eyes it is full: Let us drink then, my raven of Cairo! Is that the wind dying? O no; It’s only two devils, that blow Through a murderer’s bones, to and fro, In the ghosts’ moonshine.

If there were dreams to sell, What would you buy?
Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life’s fresh crown
Only a rose-leaf down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy?A cottage lone and still, With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die.
Such pearl from Life’s fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down.
Were dreams to have at will,
This would best heal my ill, This would I buy.

How many times do I love thee, dear? Tell me how many thoughts there be In the atmosphere Of a new-fall’n year,
Whose white and sable hours appear The latest flake of Eternity:
So many times do I love thee, dear.How many times do I love again? Tell me how many beads there are In a silver chain Of evening rain,
Unravell’d from the tumbling main, And threading the eye of a yellow star:
So many times do I love again.