A NOISOME mildewed vine Crawls to the rotting eaves; The gate has dropped from the rusty hinge, And the walks are stamped 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. Among the dank lush flowers The spiteful fire-fly glows, And a woman steals by the stagnant pond Wrapt in her burial clothes. There's a dark blue scar on her throat, And ever she makes a moan, And the humid lizards gleam 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? Go not there at night, For a spell hangs over all -- The palsied elms, and the dismal road, And the broken garden-wall. 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! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHANNEL PASSAGE by RUPERT BROOKE DOUGLASS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR VERSES, RESPECTFULLY & AFFECTIONALLY INSCRIBED TO PROFESSIONAL FRIEND by BERNARD BARTON CHRISTMAS AFTER WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES |