THERE came a whisper in the night, A little cry across the years; And I who heard, in deep affright, Awakened with unnumbered fears. "It is some deed that I have done, Some sin I wrought long, long ago; But hush! am I the only one? Wherefore am I then troubled so? "For all men do some evil deed, And some men falter, some men fall; Do ghosts of Selfishness and Greed Come back, O God, to haunt them all?" Then came a whisper in the night, A little cry across the years; And I who heard, in deep affright, Listened with wild, unnumbered fears. @3"I am the ghost of that pure deed You might have done, but did not do; I am the ghost of that good seed You might have sown when Life was new.@1 @3"And this it is that haunts you now, That deed undone, that seed unsown; Too late, too late to take the plough, The Spring is fled, the May is flown!"@1 And this I heard amid the night, This voice that called across the years, And when the dawn came, silver-white, I was companioned with my tears. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS by HENRY GLASSFORD BELL THE CASTAWAY by WILLIAM COWPER IVAN THE CZAR by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS LOVE NOT by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON MESSIAH; A SACRED ECLOGUE IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO by ALEXANDER POPE THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE [MAY 24, 1883] by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR CONCLUDING VERSES, AFTER RETURNING HOME FROM AN AUTUMNAL MORNING WALK by BERNARD BARTON |