The Old House By The Mere.

Five rotten gables look upon      Wan rotting roses and rank weeds,     Old iron gates on posts of stone,      Dim dingles where the vermin breeds.     Five rotten gables black appear      Above bleak yews and cedars sad,     And thence they see the sleepy mere      In lazy lilies clad.     At morn the slender dragon-fly,      A burnished ray of light, darts past;     The knightly bee comes charging by      Winding a surly blast.     At noon amid the fervid leaves      The quarreling insects gossip hot,     And thro' the grass the spider weaves      A weft with silver shot.     At eve the hermit cricket rears      His vesper song in shrillful shrieks;     The bat a blund'ring voyage steers      Beneath the sunset's streaks.     The slimy worm gnaws at the bud,      The Katydid talks dreamily;     The sullen owl in monkish hood      Chants in the old beech tree.     At night the blist'ring dew comes down      And lies as white as autumn frost     Upon the green, upon the brown,      You'd deem each bush a ghost.     The crescent moon with golden prow      Plows thro' the frothy cloud and 's gone;     A large blue star comes out to glow      Above the house alone.     The oozy lilies lie asleep      On glist'ring beds of welt'ring leaves;     The starlight through the trees doth peep,      And fairy garments weaves.     And in the mere, all lily fair,      A maiden's corpse floats evermore,     Naked, and in her raven hair      Wrapped o'er and o'er.     And when the clock of yon old town      Peals midnight o'er the fenny heath,     In haunted chambers up and down      Marches the pomp of Death:     And stiff, stiff silks make rustlings,      Sweep sable satins murmuringly;     And then a voice so sweetly sings      An olden melody.     And foam-white creatures flit and dance      Along the dusty galleries,     With long, loose locks that strangely glance      And demon-glaring eyes.     But in one chamber, when the moon      Casts her cold silver wreath on wreath,     Holds there proud state on ghastly throne      The skeleton Death.