Death & Dying
The Phantom-Wooer
From Poems, Posthumous and Collected (1851)
A ghost, that loved a lady fair,
Ever in the starry air
Of midnight at her pillow stood;
And, with a sweetness skies above
The luring words of human love,
Her soul the phantom wooed.
Sweet and sweet is their poisoned note,
The little snakes' of silver throat,
In mossy skulls that nest and lie,
Ever singing "die, oh! die."
Young soul, put off your flesh, and come
With me into the quiet tomb,
Our bed is lovely, dark, and sweet;
The earth will swing us, as she goes,
Beneath our coverlid of snows,
And the warm leaden sheet.
Dear and dear is their poisoned note,
The little snakes' of silver throat,
In mossy skulls that nest and lie,
Ever singing "die, oh! die."
Codex Note
A ghost woos a sleeping woman out of her body and into the grave, the temptation set in the voice of the 'little snakes' of silver throat' that nest in skulls. Beddoes's characteristic mix of the sweet and the macabre.
Cite this poem
MLA
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. “The Phantom-Wooer.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/beddoes/3/.
Chicago
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. “The Phantom-Wooer.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/beddoes/3/.
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