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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNET FROM JAPAN: 1. THE SPELL, by ADELAIDE NICHOLS BAKER
First Line: It's like a scene set for a fairy tale
Last Line: And kingly spirits stir on every side.
Subject(s): Japan; Japanese
First Line: It's like a scene set for a fairy tale
Last Line: And kingly spirits stir on every side.
Subject(s): Japan; Japanese
It's like a scene set for a fairy tale,
This little court whose haunted paths I tread.
Star-like and strange, the creeping mosses spread
Along the ground. Green twilight like a veil
Shrouds the quaint shrines where lanterns, ghostly pale,
Burn before tiny palaces of red
Resplendent lacquer. Hush! The princely dead
Dwell in these mansions exquisitely frail,
Yet endlessly enduring. At some spell,
These kings may rise from reveries profound;
Their gold-encrusted doors may open wide.
And lo! Afar the holy temple bell
Spins ever-widening webs of sobbing sound
And kingly spirits stir on every side.
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