Explore "Praeterita" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Low belts of rushes ragged with the blast; / Lagoons of marish reddening with the west; / And o'er the marsh the water-fowl's unrest / While daylight dwindles and the dusk falls fast. / Set in sad walls, all mossy with the past, / An old stone gateway with a crumbling crest; / A garden where death drowses manifest; / And in gaunt yews the shadowy house at last. / Here, like some unseen spirit, silence talks / With echo and the wind in each gray room / Where melancholy slumbers with the rain: / Or, like some gentle ghost, the moonlight walks / In the dim garden, which her smile makes bloom / With all the old-time loveliness again.