The Apparition

FROM that inevitable Shore,
Wheer Styx's tremendous Waters roar,
Thus wing'd with Vengeance lo I fly,
And skim beneath the gloomy Sky.
To you O false, O faithless Fair,
(Yet tremble do—and wildly stare)
To you this angry Visit's paid,
To you once lov'd, but faithless Maid,
Perhaps (too thin for mortal Eyes)
You know me not in this Disguise;
I ne'er was number'd with your Foes,
But what I'm now, shall not disclose
My Name (esteem'd by one or two)
Was Mira—while I liv'd like you,
Till your Unkindness cut the Twine
Of Life, before its stated Time.

And shou'd you ask to know the End
Of her that once you call'd a Friend?
Whether of Pleurisies she dy'd,
Or in a parching Fever dry'd?
Or pale Consumption sure and slow?
Or Apoplexy's sudden Blow?
'Twas none of these—no common Dart,
That struck my unresisting Heart:
The dire Distemper you shall hear,
Then listen with attentive Ear.
Did you not, Ah! did you not say,
That you wou'd come the next fair Day
To Mira's Dome?—rejoic'd to see
At once the Butterflies and me?
But now, Alas! (too late, I find)
The promis'd Joys of human Kind,
Inconstant as the flitting Wind:
You came not—That I need not tell.
But then, O then your Mira fell,
That fatal Day expecting you;
I swept my House, and din'd by Two,
Took off the Night-Cap from my Brow,
(O Pride!) but I repent it now:
(Ambitious her I lov'd to please)
And, Ah! too straitly lac'd my Stays;
Then silent sate 'twixt Hopes and Fears,
With beating Heart and list'ning Ears,
Till the shrill Clock had sounded four;
Then wretched Mira was no more:
Her Cheeks put on a death-like Hue,
Her Eye-balls bid this World Adieu:
And tho' untouch'd by Cupid's Dart,
She perish'd with a broken Heart.

But I have done—Farewel, for I
From this corporeal World must fly:
So the relentless Fates decree,
Once more Farewel—Remember Me.