 | Romance and revery |  |
153
TEMPTATION.
Once, in the bleak gray bournes where ghosts abide,
Nine spectral figures met, each gaunt and vast,
With blood-red lips, with faces hollow-eyed,
With voices like a shivering autumn blast!
Nine spectral figures met, each gaunt and vast,
With blood-red lips, with faces hollow-eyed,
With voices like a shivering autumn blast!
Then later, to a poet whose cheek had grown
Pale with the pain balked love so darkly wins,
They glided, saying in stealthy undertone:
“Make us thy Muses ... We are nine black Sins!”
Pale with the pain balked love so darkly wins,
They glided, saying in stealthy undertone:
“Make us thy Muses ... We are nine black Sins!”
| Romance and revery | |