I watch where preening condors mate
On parapets above the moat
As sad songs from a ghostly throat
Here issue from the castle’s gate
And to the cloud heads slowly float.
Across its courtyards cracked and gray
About its ancient tarn there coils
Green vipers in its loamy soils
To sun bathe in the heat of day
Until a ghost that black tarn roils.
Under the arches thick with moss
The fallen blocks rest in the dusk
As shadows stalk across the husk
Of this old palace now but dross,
Below the low moon’s long wan tusk.
Its once proud turrets lean and tilt
Above the breached and ivied walls,
Where spirits murmur madrigals
At night where liquid moonlight’s spilt
Down through the roofless shattered halls.
I watch where yet a dull light glows
From out an old and vanished lamp
There in the dark, the cold and damp,
Here where a gale in winter blows,
As ancient ghosts each dusk encamp.
Back to the moat whose silt is dry,
Its water drained into the sea,
Into the fen, into the lea
To grow the hops, the wheat and rye,
Now ghosts converge nocturnally.
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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I like fantasy poems and I think this one really sets the scene and captures the mood very well. The imagery is so vivid that it took me to a place where I could feel and smell the damp and see the ghosts lingering. There are many old castles and other buildings that could tell a tale or two along these lines if only they could speak. The rhyme scheme is lovely and the flow is steady yet brisk throughout this poem. I like this tale very much.
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Ghosts! I like poems with ghosts and I like the rhyming in this poem very much. Is there a name for this poem... is it a form? It is lovely.
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So descriptive! I really like your way with words in this one.
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