The Old Ghost
Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803 (Clifton, Bristol) – 1849 (Basel)
Over the water an old ghost strode
To a churchyard on the shore,
And over him the waters had flowed
A thousand years or more,
And pale and wan and weary
Looked never a sprite as he;
For it's lonely and it's dreary
The ghost of a body to be
That has mouldered away in the sea.
Over the billows the old ghost stepped,
And the winds in mockery sung;
For the bodiless ghost would fain have wept
Over the maiden that lay so young
'Mong the thistles and toadstools so hoary;
And he begged of the waves a tear,
But they shook upwards their moonlight glory,
And the shark looked on with a sneer
At his yearning desire and agony.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 70 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCCCCC DEDECXCXC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 611 |
Words | 123 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9 |
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"The Old Ghost" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36798/the-old-ghost>.
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