Poem by Charles Hanson Towne

Haunted

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.

"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.

"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!"

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.

1. An Autumn Leaf
2. Waiting
3. I Drink the Fragrance of the Rose
4. The Little Home Paper
5. City Children

Mathilde Blind Haunted ("Why will you haunt me unawares")

Print

1372 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version