Eidolons

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)



Those forms we fancy shadows, those strange lights
That flash on lone morasses, the quick wind
That smites us by the roadside are the Night's
Innumerable children. Unconfined
By shroud or coffin, disembodied souls,
Still on probation, steal into the air
From ancient battlefields and churchyard knolls
At the day's ending. Pestilence and despair
Fly with the startled bats at set of sun;
And wheresoever murders have been done,
In crowded palaces or lonely woods,
Where'er a soul has sold itself and lost
Its high inheritance, there, hovering, broods
Some mute, invisible, accursèd ghost.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
45

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDADEEFGAH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 597
Words 96
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was a poet novelist traveler and editor more…

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