The Maniac

I saw them sitting in the shade;          The long green vines hung over,     But could not hide the gold-haired maid          And Earl, my dark-eyed lover.     His arm was clasped so close, so close,          Her eyes were softly lifted,     While his eyes drank the cheek of rose          And breasts like snowflakes drifted.     A strange noise sounded in my brain;          I was a guest unbidden.     I stole away, but came again          With two knives snugly hidden.     I stood behind them.    Close they kissed,          While eye to eye was speaking;     I aimed my steels, and neither missed          The heart I sent it seeking.     There were two death-shrieks mingled so          It seemed like one voice crying,     I laughed - it was such bliss, you know,          To hear and see them dying.     I laughed and shouted while I stood          Above the lovers, gazing     Upon the trickling rills of blood          And frightened eyes fast glazing.     It was such joy to see the rose          Fade from her cheek for ever;     To know the lips he kissed so close          Could answer never, never.     To see his arm grow stark and cold,          And know it could not hold her;     To know that while the world grew old          His eyes could not behold her.     A crowd of people thronged about,          Brought thither by my laughter;     I gave one last triumphant shout -          Then darkness followed after.     That was a thousand years ago;          Each hour I live it over,     For there, just out of reach, you know,          She lies, with Earl, my lover.     They lie there, staring, staring so          With great, glazed eyes to taunt me.     Will no one bury them down low,          Where they shall cease to haunt me?     He kissed her lips, not mine; the flowers          And vines hung all about them.     Sometimes I sit and laugh for hours          To think just how I found them.     And then I sometimes stand and shriek          In agony of terror:     I see the red warm in her cheek,          Then laugh loud at my error.     My cheek was all too pale, he thought;          He deemed hers far the brightest.     Ha! but my dagger touched a spot          That made her face the whitest!     But oh! the days seem very long,          Without my Earl, my lover;     And something in my head seems wrong          The more I think it over.     Ah! look - she is not dead - look there!          She's standing close beside me!     Her eyes are open - how they stare!          Oh, hide me! hide me! hide me!