PHANTOMS. By L. J. EDMUND-THORNTON 1891. Poem.

Goulburn Herald NSW

6 Feb 1891

PHANTOMS.

By L. J. EDMUND-THORNTON

I sit by the fire light musing

“Tis midnight – ALL-Hallow e’en

And visions appear before me.

As if I were a dream.

Oh! Happy childish faces

Why do you haunt me so

Your fragile forms at rest were laid

In the church yard long ago.

  

Why, ah! Why, did ye leave me

To go to that silent land?

Say, can my thoughts ever reach ye,

Afar on its golden strand.

The phantom of Sorrow appears,

Ah! Me, I shudder in fright;

Its grim-like form I fear to see

On such a weird like night.

I gaze on my childhood’s home,

And the castle on the hill;

Below, the river Gwendraeth,

Flows by the haunted mill.

But where art thou, fair Gwenllian,

Once queen of those ancient halls?

Say, are thy ashes resting

Within those crumbling walls?

Thy castle was besieged

In the olden days of strife,

And thou on charger borne

Did’st fly for they dear life.

The warriors fast pursued thee,

To Garreg mountain side;

And thou, fair Queen of Cymrn,

Fell from thy stead and died.

The sparking little river,

Still glides so softly by;

Thy regal halls of splendour

Now in stately ruins lie.

The phantom of happiness comes,

With form serene and bright;

I strive to clasp its hand in mine,

But vanishes out of sight.

Loved ones from distant lands

Before me now I see,

Those who loved me well

Gone to eternity.

I gaze on those faces dear,

Till my heart grows weak with pain;

I close my eyes on the past,

And the vision goes again.