Vomits their phantom from the burial-place.

Such is thy history, O my soul, from birth;

Dark pages with decaying odors rife,

A maze of treachery, and pain, and dearth.

Yet ’tis the story of a vulgar life;

No title casts a glamour o’er its woes,

No footlights gild its unromantic strife.

Across the web the flying shuttle goes,

Weaving with common threads a homely plot,

Yet dark and sinister the pattern shows.