| |
| EACH heart has its haunted chamber, | |
| Where the silent moonlight falls! | |
| On the floor are mysterious footsteps, | |
| There are whispers along the walls! | |
| |
| And mine at times is haunted | 5 |
| By phantoms of the Past, | |
| As motionless as shadows | |
| By the silent moonlight cast. | |
| |
| A form sits by the window, | |
| That is not seen by day, | 10 |
| For as soon as the dawn approaches | |
| It vanishes away. | |
| |
| It sits there in the moonlight, | |
| Itself as pale and still, | |
| And points with its airy finger | 15 |
| Across the window-sill. | |
| |
| Without, before the window, | |
| There stands a gloomy pine, | |
| Whose boughs wave upward and downward | |
| As wave these thoughts of mine. | 20 |
| |
| And underneath its branches | |
| Is the grave of a little child, | |
| Who died upon life’s threshold, | |
| And never wept nor smiled. | |
| |
| What are ye, O pallid phantoms! | 25 |
| That haunt my troubled brain? | |
| That vanish when day approaches, | |
| And at night return again? | |
| |
| What are ye, O pallid phantoms! | |
| But the statues without breath, | 30 |
| That stand on the bridge overarching | |
| The silent river of death? | |
| |
