I know not whence, but on the morning air A ghastly whisper pales my waking cheek; A shudder in its warning seems to speak, "Beware!" I woke: the wind at intervals, A mournful vigil kept, As o'er a sepulchre, around The chamber where I slept. The casement rattled in the blast, The breathing curtains stirred; Anon, throughout their shroudy length, A stifled sigh was heard -- A brooding dread, low whispering In mystic monotone -- "It was a deed of darkness, And in the darkness done." Again at noon, but thinner, faintlier, there, As spent with vigil, heaves a stifled sigh (I turn to see; but nothing meets the eye) "Beware!" The pallor of a wasted lamp, A fitful glimmer flung Athwart a miniature above The sculptured mantel hung, Where gleams of melancholy light, With conscious shadows wrought Upon the lineaments portrayed A malady of thought -- A dim-remembered agony, Interpreting the tone -- "It was a deed of darkness, And in the darkness done!" At twilight grim, in nature's dumb despair, As swoops the prowling darkness of the day, Throbs, in a sudden torment of dismay, "Beware!" Aghast, I listened, motionless, When lo! a chilling sound -- The vague pulsation of a heart Beneath a mortal wound -- And from the picture quivering, As smitten wan with pain Dark, stormy drops fell suddenly As a reluctant rain: And still the moaning monody Rhymed on in undertone -- "It was a deed of darkness And in the darkness done." At midnight, like an incantation drear, The hollow tide in broken thunder-tone Sobs, with the beating of my heart, a groan, "Beware!" The spectral eyes drooped languidly, The hand convulsive clung, The bell of midnight clashed the hour With stern prophetic tongue; Then, all was blank -- oblivious In icy calm I lay -- The morning whitened to behold My raven tresses gray; And beats forever on my brain The throbbing monotone -- "It was a deed of darkness And in the darkness done." Thus, as a strain bewildered, everywhere, The trooping echoes of a formless fear, Like startled phantoms, flock upon my ear, "Beware!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MENELAUS AND HELEN by RUPERT BROOKE LAST WORDS TO A DUMB FRIEND by THOMAS HARDY ON STURMINSTER FOOT-BRIDGE by THOMAS HARDY MARY MAGDALENE by GEORGE HERBERT RECUERDO by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY A CALIFORNIA CHRISTMAS by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER |