Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE REVENANT, by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY Poet's Biography First Line: It was at tunis, in the shop Last Line: The ghost of man. Subject(s): Ghosts; Hallucinations And Illusions; Supernatural | ||||||||
IT was at Tunis, in the shop I told you of, where women stop, And falls the perfume, drop by drop, That first he came, Who in my own flesh clotheth him, And drugs my soul with memories dim, And fills my body to the brim, A perfumed flame. I know new meanings in the rose, Old channels in my sense unclose, Along my nerves the music goes Of ancient time; And I am changed to what has been, -- Silk-robed, and turbaned with the green, I try the thin edge damascene Of secret crime. To leaner sheaths my spirit shrinks, And long-forbidden pleasures drinks; The mindless life that never thinks, Crumbles my soul; And o'er the ruined yellow wall Of what I was, there groweth tall A flower, whose incense like a pall Doth round me roll. I hear a padding on the stones, There comes a terror in my bones, A throttling stills my crumpled moans And little cries; And who is he sits in my place, A lither soul, a softer grace, A lore of ages in his face, And world-wise eyes? The Revenant! in every clime He uses me to be the mime Of weird things acted in the time Of long-ago; What mysteries of heart and brain, What forms of beauty, forms of pain, The sun shall never see again, Revive and glow! A thousand years has he been clay Who from me takes the soul away, And in my body makes his play, Do what I can; Strange visitant, in myriad shapes, Who in myself my being apes! Ah, nowhere now my soul escapes The Ghost of Man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN THE EVENINGS by LUCILLE CLIFTON THE MOTHS: 1. CIRCA 1582 by NORMAN DUBIE GHOSTS IN ENGLAND by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE GHOST OF DEACON BROWN by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON EN PASSANT by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON AT GIBRALTAR by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY |
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