 | Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne |  |
WHENCE?
Eerily the wind doth blow
Through the woodland hollow;
Eërily forlorn and low,
Tremulous echoes follow!
Through the woodland hollow;
Eërily forlorn and low,
Tremulous echoes follow!
Whence the low wind's tortured plaint?
Burden hopeless, dreary,
As the anguished tones that faint
Down the Miserere.
Burden hopeless, dreary,
As the anguished tones that faint
Down the Miserere.
Whence? From far-off seas its moan!
Darksome waves and lonely,
Where the tempest, overblown,
Leaves a death-calm only.
Darksome waves and lonely,
Where the tempest, overblown,
Leaves a death-calm only.
Thence it caught the awful cry
Of some last pale swimmer,
O'er whose drowning brain and eye
Life grows dim and dimmer—
Of some last pale swimmer,
O'er whose drowning brain and eye
Life grows dim and dimmer—
Ere the billows claim their prey,
Settling stern and lonely.
Where the storm-clouds, rolled away,
Leave death-silence only!
Settling stern and lonely.
Where the storm-clouds, rolled away,
Leave death-silence only!
So with pain the wind-heart sighs;
Through its sad commotion
Weary sea-tides sob, and rise
Wailing hints of Ocean!
Through its sad commotion
Weary sea-tides sob, and rise
Wailing hints of Ocean!
197
Hist! oh hist! as spreads the mist,
Wood and hill-slope doming,
By no grace of starlight kissed,
'Mid the shadowy gloaming.
Wood and hill-slope doming,
By no grace of starlight kissed,
'Mid the shadowy gloaming.
Drearier grows the wind, more drear
Echoes shuddering follow,
Till a place of doom and fear
Seems that haunted hollow!
Echoes shuddering follow,
Till a place of doom and fear
Seems that haunted hollow!
| Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne | |