Before the Mirror

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <SPAN name="MIRROR"><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><b>BEFORE THE MIRROR.</b></span><br/></SPAN> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now like the Lady of Shalott,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I dwell within an empty room,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And through the day and through the night</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I sit before an ancient loom.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And like the Lady of Shalott</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I look into a mirror wide,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where shadows come, and shadows go,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And ply my shuttle as they glide.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not as she wove the yellow wool,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ulysses' wife, Penelope;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By day a queen among her maids,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">But in the night a woman, she,</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, creeping from her lonely couch,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unraveled all the slender woof;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, with a torch, she climbed the towers,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">To fire the fagots on the roof!</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">But weaving with a steady hand</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The shadows, whether false or true,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">I put aside a doubt which asks</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Among these phantoms what are you?"</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">For not with altar, tomb, or urn,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or long-haired Greek with hollow shield,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or dark-prowed ship with banks of oars,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or banquet in the tented field;</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or Norman knight in armor clad,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Waiting a foe where four roads meet;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or hawk and hound in bosky dell,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where dame and page in secret greet;</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or rose and lily, bud and flower,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">My web is broidered. Nothing bright</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is woven here: the shadows grow</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Still darker in the mirror's light!</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as my web grows darker too,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Accursed seems this empty room;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">For still I must forever weave</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">These phantoms by this ancient loom.</span><br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />