Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — Can Such Things Be

CAN SUCH THINGS BE

Meseemed that while she played, while lightly yet Her fingers fell, as roses bloom by bloom, I listened--dead within a mighty room Of some old palace where great casements let Gaunt moonlight in, that glimpsed a parapet Of statued marble: in the arrased gloom Majestic pictures towered, dim as doom, The dreams of Titian and of Tintoret.

And then, it seemed, along a corridor, A mile of oak, a stricken footstep came, Hurrying, yet slow....

I thought long centuries Passed ere she entered--she, I loved of yore, For whom I died, who wildly wailed my name And bent and kissed me on the mouth and eyes.