I was at peace until you came And set a careless mind aflame. I lived in quiet; cold, content; All longing in safe banishment, Until your ghostly lips and eyes Made wisdom unwise. Naught was in me to tempt your feet To seek a lodging. Quite forgot Lay the sweet solitude we two In childhood used to wander through; Time's cold had closed my heart about; And shut you out. Well, and what then?. . . O vision grave, Take all the little all I have! Strip me of what in voiceless thought Life's kept of life, unhoped, unsought! -- Reverie and dream that memory must Hide deep in dust! This only I say: -- Though cold and bare The haunted house you have chosen to share, Still 'neath its walls the moonbeam goes And trembles on the untended rose; Still o'er its broken roof-tree rise The starry arches of the skies; And in your lightest word shall be The thunder of an ebbing sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NEEDLE THREADER IN NEED OF A NEEDLE by DARA WIER HUMAN LIFE by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE PRECIOUS WORDS by EMILY DICKINSON THE PHANTOM KISS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE PROGRESS OF POESY; A PINDARIC ODE by THOMAS GRAY POPPIES IN THE WHEAT by HELEN MARIA HUNT FISKE JACKSON BEAUTIFUL MEALS by THOMAS STURGE MOORE |