"MOTHER, he walks by the Windy Gate, As though for my broken tryst a-wait." "Daughter, I tell you he died last night When I kept your tryst by lantern light." "Mother, I know you murdered him: But he thought you were I by the lantern dim. "When I stole shivering past the place He held me with his hollow gaze. "His shape was thin as the edge of your knife, And he clasped a formless bundle of life. "'Lo' said he, 'for your heart a thorn: This is our child that shall be born. "'My deceit and your deceit, How we sully this soul of it.' "Mother, I cannot bear the thought. Cannot you tell him I killed him not?" "Foolish babble and nothing said: Daughter, I tell you the dead are dead." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO MY MYRTLE [MIRTLE] by WILLIAM BLAKE THE WITCH by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE ARAB TO HIS FAVORITE STEED by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON THE NATIVE LAND by FRANCISCO DE ALDANA SHELLEY'S DEATH by ALFRED AUSTIN EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 31. 'TIS YIELDING GAINS THE LOVER VICTORY by PHILIP AYRES TO MRS. PRIESTLEY, WITH SOME DRAWINGS OF BIRDS AND INSECTS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |