THE clouds that watched in the west have fled; The sun has set and the moon is high; And nothing is left of the day that is dead Save a fair white ghost in the eastern sky. While the day was dying we knelt and yearned, And hoped and prayed till its last breath died; But since to a radiant ghost it has turned, Shall we rest with that white grace satisfied? The fair ghost smiles with a pale, cold smile, As mocking as life and as hopeless as death -- Shall passionless beauty like this beguile? Who loves a ghost without feeling or breath? I remember a maiden as fair to see, Who once was alive, with a heart like June; She died, but her spirit wanders free, And charms mcn's souls to the old mad tune. Warm she was, in her life's glad day, -- Warm and fair, and faithful and sweet; A man might have thrown a kingdom away To kneel and love at her girlish feet. But the night came down, and her day was done; Hoping and dreaming were over for aye; And then her career as a ghost was begun -- Cold she shone, like the moon on high. For maiden or moon shall a live man yearn? Shall a breathing man love a ghost without breath? Shine, moon, and chill us, you cannot burn; Go home, Girl-Ghost, to your kingdom of death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOOD-BYE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON SONNET: 27 by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE WATER-SPRINGS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET WOULD YOU RETURN? by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE ENDLESS BATTLE by BERTON BRALEY THE LADY TO HER GUITAR by EMILY JANE BRONTE LES MORTS VONT VITE by HENRY CUYLER BUNNER CASTLE GORDON (1) by ROBERT BURNS LINES FROM A NOTEBOOK - JANUARY 1808 by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |