The Kelso Road

Morning and evening are mine,     And the bright noon-day;     But night to no man doth belong     When the sad ghosts play.     From Kelso town I took the road     By the full-flood Tweed;     The black clouds swept across the moon     With devouring greed.     Seek ye no peace who tread the night;     I felt above my head     Blowing the cloud's edge, faces wry     In pale fury spread.     Twelve surly elves were digging graves     Beside black Eden brook;     Eleven dug and stared at me,     But one read in a book.     In Birgham trees and hedges rocked,     The moon was drowned in black;     At Hirsel woods I shrieked to find     A fiend astride my back.     His legs he closed about my breast,     His hands upon my head,     Till Coldstream lights beamed in the trees     And he wailed and fled.     Morning and evening are mine,     And the bright noon-heat,     But at night the sad thin ghosts     For their revels meet.