On a picture by F. S. Church, representing a mummy's head contrasted with a rose bloom.
Grim contrast! 'Gainst a background weird as night,
A mummy's head, with smirking jaws apart,
And cerements of coarse linen clasping tight
Its snaky locks, that seem to writhe and dart.
Before it, smiling, flushed with recent flight
(For Morning wore it near her throbbing heart),
Each crumpled petal dewy yet, and bright,
A half-blown rose!--Thy pulses well may start!
Profane, almost, the fancy thus confessed:
This fragile thing, like gauntlet girt with lace,
Flung in the withered cheek of Time,--sad jest;
And sorrier still, that this lean, lecherous face
So close to blushing innocence should slip,--
Dead Past and Maiden Present lip to lip!
