Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GHOST, by RUTH AUGHILTREE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GHOST, by                    
First Line: The whole night long the lean wind whined
Last Line: Come rippling along her bedroom wall.
Subject(s): Ghosts; Supernatural


The whole night long the lean wind whined,
And pawed and sniffed at the window-panes,
While she lay and thought, "I mustn't mind;
Old houses are always queer when it rains."

But Something, stepping up the stair,
Came tiptoeing forward through the gloom,
And groped until It found her, where
Her heart was shaking the bed in her room.
She felt It standing beside her head,
As long ago she had dreamed It would stand,
And her skin grew stiff and chill with dread,
And she shrank from the touch of a hand on her hand.
And then she thought, "The Poor Strayed Thing!
It's lonely, perhaps, and Its grave is cold,
And maybe the rain made It think of Spring,
And marshes starred with the cowslips' gold.
For if you have loved the brown brook's sound,
And daffodils, and the thrush's song,
It must be tiresome to lie in the ground
And wonder why Spring is away so long!"
And then she said, as loud as she could,
(For the shake in her voice,) "Yes, April's come,
And the bloodroots are out in the lower wood,
And my tulip buds are as big as your thumb!"

With that, she heard a sigh, quick-drawn,
And footsteps pattered away down the hall, --
And turning, she saw the clear new dawn
Come rippling along her bedroom wall.





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