When life still hovers, and seems to lower,

Though voice hath no spell, and the pulse no power!

V.

I tell ye the story this chill Halloween,

For it suiteth the Spirit-eve;

But my trance was in Spring-time, when trees were green,

And the hedgerows began to leave:

When the blossom put forth, and the year was new:

When Earth was so lovely—to bid it adieu

Seem’d doubly to die!—and I thought while I drew