Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GHOSTS, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS Poet's Biography First Line: Where the columned cliffs far out have planted Last Line: As the castle over the northern sea. Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley Subject(s): Ghosts; Immortality; Supernatural | ||||||||
WHERE the columned cliffs far out have planted Their daring shafts in the Northern foam, There hangs a castle that should be haunted, A ruin meet for a phantom's home. For heavily in the caverns under The hidden tide like a muffled drum, Beats distinct through the level thunder Of the wintry waste whence storm-winds come. And fire has blackened the mouldering rafter, And stairs have crumbled from bolted doors; At night there's a sound of wail and laughter, And footsteps crossing the creaking floors. And in and out through the courts forsaken Wild shapes are drifted from hall to hall, With a trumpet sound the towers are shaken, And banners flutter along the wall. 'Tis but the storms and the seas enchant it, Its ghosts are shadow and wind and spray. If ever a phantom used to haunt it, That too was mortal and passed away. The ghosts have found where the hills embosom A windless gardenthey walk at noon, When the beds and branches burn with blossom, And hardly wait for the rising moon When the starry charm of the night is broken And the day but lives as a child unborn, They pass with echoes of words once spoken And silent footsteps and eyes forlorn. From the blind gray house where all are sleeping A mocking music sounds wild and clear, The faint lights glimmer and past them sweeping The dancers appear and disappear. And the swinging branches close to cover The two who tremble there heart to heart, The ghostly lady and phantom lover, The souls long parted that cannot part. They seem as shadows of morn and even, For ever fading to come again; They are as shadows of tempest driven, Stormily sighing across the plain. For these depart as the rest departed, The garden under the hill shall be As ghost-forsaken, as past-deserted As the castle over the Northern sea. | 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 |
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