Explore "To an Importunate Ghost" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Get gone, thou most uncomfortable ghost!
Thou really dost annoy me with thy thin / Impalpable transparency of grin; / And the vague, shadowy shape of thee almost / Hath vext me beyond boundary and coast / Of my broad patience. Stay thy chattering chin, / And reel the tauntings of thy vain tongue in, / Nor tempt me further with thy vaporish boast / That I am _helpless_ to combat thee! Well, / Have at thee, then! Yet if a doom most dire / Thou wouldst escape, flee whilst thou canst! -- Revile / Me not, Miasmic Mist! -- Rank Air! _retire_!
One instant longer an thou haunt'st me, I'll / _Inhale_ thee, O thou wraith despicable!