Page:Poems Allen.djvu/121

Have you no speechless sorrow there
 Are there no ghosts to trouble you
 Do you carry a skeleton, too?

Softly, softly!—I do not heed
 Any innocent lie you tell.
All whose feet on Life's pathway bleed
 Carry their terrible loads as well:
 Never one can escape the spell.

Close your eyes,—but you see them still;
 Turn your head,—they are there the same ;
Fly, they follow, go where you will,—
 Taunting faces of grief or blame,
 More to be feared than sword or flame.

Ghosts of the perished joys of old,
 Hopes which once in our hearts abode,
Phantoms of dead loves, stark and cold,
 Long since buried on Life's sad road,—
 O, a ghastly and fearful load!

Those torment us with sharp rebukes,
 These still scourge us with dumb complaint;