Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

The lady smiled a flickering smile,

And she pressed her temples hard the while.

"Thou seest that Death for a woman can

Do more than knighthood for a man."

"But show me the child thou callest mine,

Is she out to-night in the ghost's sunshine?"

"In St. Peter's Church she is playing on,

At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.

When the moonbeams right through the window go,

Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,

She says the rest of them do not stir,

But one comes down to play with her.

Then I can go where I list, and weep,

For good St. John my child will keep."

"Thy beauty filleth the very air,

Never saw I a woman so fair."

"Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;

But do not touch me, or woe will betide.

Alas, I am weak: I might well know

This gladness betokens some further woe.

Yet come. It will come. I will bear it. I can.

For thou lovest me yet--though but as a man."

The knight dismounted in earnest speed;

Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,

And fell by the outer wall, and died.

But the knight he kneeled by the lady's side;

Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,

Rapt in an everlasting kiss:

Though never his lips come the lady nigh,

And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.

All the night long, till the cock crew loud,

He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.

And what they said, I may not say:

Dead night was sweeter than living day.

How she made him so blissful glad

Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,

I may not tell; but it needs no touch

To make them blessed who love so much.

"Come every night, my ghost, to me;

And one night I will come to thee.

'Tis good to have a ghostly wife:

She will not tremble at clang of strife;

She will only hearken, amid the din,

Behind the door, if he cometh in."

And this is how Sir Aglovaile

Often walked in the moonlight pale.

And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,

Full orbed moonlight filled his room;

And through beneath his chamber door,

Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;

And they that passed, in fear averred

That murmured words they often heard.

'Twas then that the eastern crescent shone

Through the chancel window, and good St. John

Played with the ghost-child all the night,

And the mother was free till the morning light,

And sped through the dawning night, to stay

With Aglovaile till the break of day.