THE clouds that watched in the west have fled; The sun has set and the moon is high; And nothing is left of the day that is dead Save a fair white ghost in the eastern sky. While the day was dying we knelt and yearned, And hoped and prayed till its last breath died; But since to a radiant ghost it has turned, Shall we rest with that white grace satisfied? The fair ghost smiles with a pale, cold smile, As mocking as life and as hopeless as death -- Shall passionless beauty like this beguile? Who loves a ghost without feeling or breath? I remember a maiden as fair to see, Who once was alive, with a heart like June; She died, but her spirit wanders free, And charms mcn's souls to the old mad tune. Warm she was, in her life's glad day, -- Warm and fair, and faithful and sweet; A man might have thrown a kingdom away To kneel and love at her girlish feet. But the night came down, and her day was done; Hoping and dreaming were over for aye; And then her career as a ghost was begun -- Cold she shone, like the moon on high. For maiden or moon shall a live man yearn? Shall a breathing man love a ghost without breath? Shine, moon, and chill us, you cannot burn; Go home, Girl-Ghost, to your kingdom of death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO AN EARLY DAFFODIL; SONNET by AMY LOWELL TO A MISTRESS DYING by WILLIAM DAVENANT A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 35 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN ONLY WAITING by FRANCES LAUGHTON MACE SYMPHONY IN YELLOW by OSCAR WILDE FINDING CYNTHIA IN PAIN, AND CRYING; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES LINES TO ROBERT ALDERSON UPON HIS DEPARTURE FROM WARRINGTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |