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

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCCCCC DEDECXCXC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 611
Words 123
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 9, 9

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Thomas Lovell Beddoes was an English poet, dramatist and physician. more…

All Thomas Lovell Beddoes poems | Thomas Lovell Beddoes Books

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