COVE

Page 8 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription:
Around his form her soft arms throwing,
And clinging to that loved embrace,
She hid, in desperate grief, her face
Upon the breast, those woes bestowing –
Till o’er her soul, subdued by sorrow,
A gleam of Hopes gay sunshine flew,
Such as benignant Angels borrow
To deck the clouds of dunnest hue.
Irresolutely, timidly,
She raised to his that speaking eye
If there be hope – [illegible yet] perchance there may –
He is not gone – he still may stay!!

Was it relenting love which now
Gleamed o’er his dark determined brow!
No, no she saw the fixed despair
Which shot avenging light’nings there –
The phrenzy of his rolling eye –
His raging soul which boils, & flashes,
Beneath those long and haggard lashes,
Like billows ‘neath a lowering sky!
She knew, she felt that he must go,
And hiding her averted face
She groaned with that excess of woe,
And faintly sunk from his embrace.

Oh may thy rest be long, and deep,
Daughter of that sun burnt shore!
And may some pitying angel steep
Those eyes in everlasting sleep
That thou may’st live, & feel no more!