108
GARGOYLES
The King-Ghost wears a crown of hopes
forgotten ;
Dead loves are woven in his ghastly
robe ;
Bewildered wills and faiths grown old and
rotten
And deeds undared his sceptre, sword, and
globe.
Keep us, O Mary maid,
What time the King-Ghost goes
arrayed !
The Hell-Wind whistles through his plume-
less pinions ;
Clanks all that melancholy host of bones ;
Fate’s principalities and Death’s dominions
Echo the drear discord, the tuneless tones.
Keep us, dear God, from ill,
What time the Hell-Wind whistles
shrill.
The King-Ghost hath no music but their
rattling;
No scent but death’s grown faint and
fugitive;
No light but this their leprous pallor battling
Weakly with night. Jord, shall these
dry bones live?
O keep us in the hour
Wherein the King-Ghost hath his
power !
The King-Ghost girds me with his gibbering
creatures,
My dreams of old that never saw the sun.
He shows me, in a mocking glass, their
features,
The twin fiends “ Might-have-been” and
‘¢ Should-have-done.”
Keep us, by Jesu’s ruth,
What time the King-Ghost grins the
truth !
The King-Ghost boasts eternal usurpature;
For in this pool of tears his fingers fret
I had imagined, by enduring nature,
The twin gods ‘‘ Thus-will-I”’ and “* May-
be-yet.””
God, keep us most from ill,
What time the King-Ghost grips the
will !
Silver and rose and gold what flame re-
surgesP
What living light pours forth in emerald
waves?P
What inmost Music drowns the clamorous
dirges?
-—Shrieking they fly, the King-Ghost and
his slaves.
Lord, let Thy Ghost indwell,
And keep us from the power of Hell !
Amen.
Kneel down, dear maiden o’ mine, and let your eyes
Get knowledge with a soft and glad surprise !
Who would have thought you would have had it in you?
Say nothing !
On the contrary, continue!