'And I saw the figure and visage of Madness seeking for a home' THERE are three folk driving in a quaint old chaise, And the cliff-side track looks green and fair; I view them talking in quiet glee As they drop down towards the puffins' lair By the roughest of ways; But another with the three rides on, I see, Whom I like not to be there! No: it's not anybody you think of. Next A dwelling appears by a slow sweet stream Where two sit happy and half in the dark: They read, helped out by a frail-wick'd gleam, Some rhythmic text; But one sits with them whom they don't mark, One I'm wishing could not be there. No: not whom you knew and name. And now I discern gay diners in a mansion-place, And the guests dropping wit - pert, prim, or choice, And the hostess's tender and laughing face, And the host's bland brow; But I cannot help hearing a hollow voice, And I'd fain not hear it there. No: it's not from the stranger you met once. Ah, Yet a goodlier scene than that succeeds; People on a lawn - quite a crowd of them. Yes, And they chatter and ramble as fancy leads; And they say, 'Hurrah!' To a blithe speech made; save one, mirthless, Who ought not to be there. Nay: it's not the pale Form your imagings raise, That waits on us all at a destined time, It is not the Fourth Figure the Furnace showed; O that it were such a shape sublime In these latter days! It is that under which best lives corrode; Would, would it could not be there! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG FOR THE LUDDITES by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE MEDITATION OF THE OLD FISHERMAN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS FRAGMENT OF OLDE STUFFE by JAMES A. BRILL HIGH AND LOW by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE ROAD TO REST by MARIANNE CLARKE SERBIA by FLORENCE EARLE COATES ON THE CHRISTENING OF A FRIEND'S CHILD by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |