28
DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE BARD AND HIS SHADOW AT SUN-SET.
This poem, like the preceding, contains many sarcastic allusions to the religious orders.
As I lingered yesterday
Underneath the forest spray,
Waiting for the second Ellen,
Maid in loveliness excelling,
By the birch’s verdant cowl
Shelter’d from the passing rain,
Lo! a phantom grim and foul
(Bowing o’er and o’er again
Like a vastly courteous man)
Right across my pathway ran—
I with ague tremour faint,
With the name of ev’ry saint,
Crossed myself, and thus began
To accost the polished man:
BARD.
If thou art of mortal mould,
Tell me who thou art?
SHADOW.
Tell me who thou art? Behold
In this spectre form thy shade—
Why then, gentle bard, afraid?
