Oracles

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