"Thorn, thorn, I wis,
And roses twain,
A red rose and a white,
Stoop in the blossom, bee, and kiss
A lonely child good-night.
"Swim fish, sing bird,
And sigh again,
I that am lost am lone,
Bee in the blossom never stirred
Locks hid beneath a stone!"—
Her eye was of the azure fire
That hovers in wintry flame;
Her raiment wild and yellow as furze
That spouteth out the same;
And in her hand she bore no flower,
But on her head a wreath
Of faded flowers that did yet
Smell sweetly after death….
Gloomy with night the listening walls
Are now that she is gone,
Albeit this solitary child
No longer seems alone.
Fast though her taper dwindles down,
Heavy and thick the tome,
A beauty beyond fear to dim
Haunts now her alien home.
Ghosts in the world, malignant, grim,
Vex many a wood and glen,
And house and pool—the unquiet ghosts,
Of dead and restless men.
But in her grannie's house this spirit—
A child as lone as she—
Pining for love not found on earth,
Ann dreams again to see.
Seated upon her tapestry stool,
Her fairy-book laid by,
She gazes into the fire, knowing
She has sweet company.