 | Pampinea and other poems |  |
54
HAUNTED.
A noisome mildewed vine
Crawls to the rotting eaves;
The gate has dropt from the rusty hinge
And the walks are strewn with leaves.
Crawls to the rotting eaves;
The gate has dropt from the rusty hinge
And the walks are strewn with leaves.
Close by the shattered fence
The red-clay road runs by
To a haunted wood, where the hemlocks groan
And the willows sob and sigh.
The red-clay road runs by
To a haunted wood, where the hemlocks groan
And the willows sob and sigh.
55
Among the dank lush flowers
The spiteful firefly glows,
And a woman steals by the stagnant pond
Wrapped in her burial-clothes.
The spiteful firefly glows,
And a woman steals by the stagnant pond
Wrapped in her burial-clothes.
There's a dark blue scar on her throat,
And ever she makes a moan;
And the humid lizards shine in the grass,
And the lichens weep on the stone,
And ever she makes a moan;
And the humid lizards shine in the grass,
And the lichens weep on the stone,
And the Moon shrinks in a cloud,
And the traveller shakes with fear,
And an Owl on the skirts of the wood
Hoots, and says, Do you hear?
And the traveller shakes with fear,
And an Owl on the skirts of the wood
Hoots, and says, Do you hear?
Go not there at night,
For a spell hangs over all—
The palsied elms, and the dismal road,
And the broken garden-wall.
For a spell hangs over all—
The palsied elms, and the dismal road,
And the broken garden-wall.
56
O, go not there at night,
For a curse is on the place;
Go not there, for fear you meet
The Murdered face to face!
For a curse is on the place;
Go not there, for fear you meet
The Murdered face to face!
| Pampinea and other poems | |