I Rose up as my Custom is

I rose up as my custom is 

On the eve of All-Souls' day, 

And left my grave for an hour or so 

To call on those I used to know 

Before I passed away. 

I visited my former Love 

As she lay by her husband's side; 

I asked her if life pleased her, now 

She was rid of a poet wrung in brow, 

And crazed with the ills he eyed; 

Who used to drag her here and there 

Wherever his fancies led, 

And point out pale phantasmal things, 

And talk of vain vague purposings 

That she discredited. 

She was quite civil, and replied, 

"Old comrade, is that you? 

Well, on the whole, I like my life. - 

I know I swore I'd be no wife, 

But what was I to do? 

"You see, of all men for my sex 

A poet is the worst; 

Women are practical, and they 

Crave the wherewith to pay their way, 

And slake their social thirst. 

"You were a poet - quite the ideal 

That we all love awhile: 

But look at this man snoring here - 

He's no romantic chanticleer, 

Yet keeps me in good style. 

"He makes no quest into my thoughts, 

But a poet wants to know 

What one has felt from earliest days, 

Why one thought not in other ways, 

And one's Loves of long ago."

Her words benumbed my fond frail ghost; 

The nightmares neighed from their stalls, 

The vampires screeched, the harpies flew, 

And under the dim dawn I withdrew 

To Death's inviolate halls.

-o0o-