Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HAUNTED VILLAGE, by SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HAUNTED VILLAGE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Little wistful shades, when dusk was nearing
Last Line: Sunk in dreams, and smiling in their sleep.
Subject(s): Haunted Houses


Little wistful shades, when dusk was nearing,
Flitted in the streets of Hemlock Town.
Saw you not, among the leafy shadows,
Breeze-stirred pinafores of beechen brown?

By closed shutters of the fanlight doorways
Fond they lingered, faintly listening yet
Only to the click of ancient needles
And the rustle of an old Gazette;

Vainly harkening for a sound of frolic
In the silent Square and stately Green;
Vaguely seeking, in our long prim gardens,
Little boys and girls where none were seen; --

Till what time the Poles and Finns and Syrians,
Following the mills, came thronging down,
And with patriarchal troops of children
Waked the spellbound streets of Hemlock Town.

Many little hob shoes danced and clattered,
Earrings tinkled, and the dusky braid
Nodded to the songs the Caesars' children
Sang, and games that Pharaoh's daughter played.

Then the little ghosts, in noiseless scamper
Fleeing up the south wind, homeward hied
To their nursery of low green pillows
On the walled hill's morning-fronting side;

Laying down their shadowy heads contented,
Shed upon the drowsing wind their deep,
Low last murmur of fulfilled desire,
Sunk in dreams, and smiling in their sleep.





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