Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GHOSTS, by J. L. SINCLAIR



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GHOSTS, by                    
First Line: I would be alone, but ghosts pursue me
Last Line: "remember me, for you once were I!"
Subject(s): Ghosts; Supernatural


I would be alone, but ghosts pursue me;
They walk beside me with noiseless tread.
Out from the shadows they throng to view me --
The curious wraiths of my self that is dead.

From the fields of the past, over hill and hollow,
Each for an instant will come and cry
"You cannot leave me. I follow, follow!
You cannot leave me -- you once were I."

A barefoot lad, with his fellows playing,
Looks up and smiles from the long ago.
"Why do you start?" I can hear him saying,
"Do I look like some one you used to know?"

Still they accost me and still importune,
"Where is the good you were going to do?
When are you going to make my fortune?
Ah, that you were I! Ah, that I were you!"

I, too, must fail from this light and laughter,
And wait in the shadows as life goes by.
I call to the Me that shall be thereafter,
"Remember me, for you once were I!"





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