 | Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold |  |
281
I.—HELL.
MEMORY.
I did remember all my sins, they flocked
Like gibbering ghosts and sheeted
Unearthly shapes that mowed at me and mocked,
Unsummoned and ungreeted;
And with a threatening hand and thwart
Set gaze of features grim and swart,
They came and frowned and fleeted.
Like gibbering ghosts and sheeted
Unearthly shapes that mowed at me and mocked,
Unsummoned and ungreeted;
And with a threatening hand and thwart
Set gaze of features grim and swart,
They came and frowned and fleeted.
Old buried vices from forgotten graves
Like skeletons upstarted,
Re-kindling embers pale in sunless caves,
And cursed me and departed;
But, ere they went, they did bequeath
The cerements that hope enwreath,
And left me broken-hearted.
Like skeletons upstarted,
Re-kindling embers pale in sunless caves,
And cursed me and departed;
But, ere they went, they did bequeath
The cerements that hope enwreath,
And left me broken-hearted.
The charities of piety long past,
No more with sweet perfuming
About the error of my footsteps cast
A gentle fair illuming;
And conscience, with its funeral bell
Tolled only, and the thought was hell—
A secret slow consuming.
No more with sweet perfuming
About the error of my footsteps cast
A gentle fair illuming;
And conscience, with its funeral bell
Tolled only, and the thought was hell—
A secret slow consuming.
| Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold | |