A stranger came to a rich man's door.
And smiled on his mighty feast;
And away his brightest child he bore,
And laid her toward the East.
He came next spring, with a smile as gay,
(At the time the East wind blows,)
And another bright creature he led away,
With a cheek like a burning rose.
And he came once more, when the spring was blue,
And whispered the last to rest,
And bore her away,--yet nobody knew
The name of the fearful guest!
Next year, there was none but the rich man left,--
Left alone in his pride and pain,
Who called on the stranger, like one bereft,
And sought through the land,--in vain!
He came not: he never was heard nor seen
Again; (so the story saith;)
But, wherever his terrible smile had been,
Men shuddered, and talked of--Death!