V

Wooingly silence whispered to me there Through boughs of dripping darkness sad with rain; Darkness, that met my eyeballs everywhere, Blind-packed and vacant as a madman's brain. And so I stood and heard the dead leaves drain, And through the leaves the haunted wind that hissed; Then suddenly--perhaps it was the strain Snapped in my temples--laughter seemed to twist, With evil, night's dead mouth that bent to mine and kissed.