THE HOUSE 
 
A NIGHTMARE 
 
Written at Anuradhapura. 
 
I MUST be ready for my friend to-night. 
So, such pale flowers as winter bears bedeck 
The old oak walls :  the wood-fire’s cheerful light 
Flashes upon the fire-dogs silver-bright. 
Wood ?  why, the jetsam of yon broken wreck 
Where the white sea runs o’er the sandy neck 
 
That joins my island to the land when tides 
Run low.  What curious fancies through my brain 
Run, all so wild and all so pleasant !  Glides 
No phantom creeping from the under sides 
Of the grey globe :  no avatar of pain 
Gathering a body from the wind and rain. 
 
So the night fell, and gently grew the shades 
In firelight fancies taking idle form ; 
Often a flashing May-day ring of maids, 
Or like an army through resounding glades 
Glittering, with martial music, trumpet, shawm, 
Drum—so I build the echoes of the storm 
 
II2