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.