I was at peace until you came And set a careless mind aflame. I lived in quiet; cold, content; All longing in safe banishment, Until your ghostly lips and eyes Made wisdom unwise. Naught was in me to tempt your feet To seek a lodging. Quite forgot Lay the sweet solitude we two In childhood used to wander through; Time's cold had closed my heart about; And shut you out. Well, and what then?. . . O vision grave, Take all the little all I have! Strip me of what in voiceless thought Life's kept of life, unhoped, unsought! -- Reverie and dream that memory must Hide deep in dust! This only I say: -- Though cold and bare The haunted house you have chosen to share, Still 'neath its walls the moonbeam goes And trembles on the untended rose; Still o'er its broken roof-tree rise The starry arches of the skies; And in your lightest word shall be The thunder of an ebbing sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL HESTER PRYNNE? by KAREN SWENSON THE COMING OF WISDOM WITH TIME by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE MOUSE by ELIZABETH JANE COATSWORTH THE WAYS OF TIME by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A QUOI BON DIRE by CHARLOTTE MEW OVERHEARD ON A SALTMARSH by HAROLD MONRO PROEM by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |