Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BODY AND SPIRIT, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BODY AND SPIRIT, by                 Poet Analysis    
First Line: Who stands before me on the stairs
Last Line: Her powdering, with her eyes on me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Ghosts; Supernatural


Who stands before me on the stairs:
Ah, is it you, my love?
My candle-light burns through your arm,
And still thou dost not move;
Thy body's dead, this is not you --
It is thy ghost my light burns through.

Thy spirit this: I leap the stairs,
To reach thy body's place;
I kiss and kiss, and still there comes
No colour to thy face;
I hug thee for one little breath --
For this is sleep, it is not death!

. . . . . .

The first night she was in her grave,
And I looked in the glass,
I saw her sit upright in bed --
Without a sound it was;
I saw her hand feel in the cloth,
To fetch a box of powder forth.

She sat and watched me all the while,
For fear I looked her way;
I saw her powder cheek and chin,
Her fast corrupting clay;
Then down my lady lay, and smiled --
She thought her beauty saved, poor child.

Now down the stairs I leap half-mad,
And up the street I start;
I still can see her hand at work,
And Oh, it breaks my heart:
All night behind my back I see
Her powdering, with her eyes on me.





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