Explore "Thoughts on Leaving Japan" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A changing medley of insistent sounds, / Like broken airs, played on a Samisen, / Pursues me, as the waves blot out the shore. / The trot of wooden heels; the warning cry / Of patient runners; laughter and strange words / Of children, children, children everywhere: / The clap of reverent hands, before some shrine; / And over all the haunting temple bells, / Waking, in silent chambers of the soul, / Dim memories of long-forgotten lives.
_But oh_! _the sorrow of the undertone_; / _The wail of hopeless weeping in the dawn_ / _From lips that smiled through gilded bars at night_.