On a bleak and Stygian eve
To the churchyard once I wandered,
For my lost love to visit and grieve
While many a thought I pondered.
I hesitated by the gate
For quite some time I tarried,
Know not do I how long I’d wait
For much sorrow then I carried.
A fading vermillion eventide
Acted as mantle for earthen black bile
I lingered ‘till t’was dark outside
Until the spectral air beguile.
To the graves did then I stride
To the elegy bearing tombstones,
Row upon row all side by side
With naught beneath but bones.
The unknowing and ignorant I
Above the graves some six feet deep
Could not hear the terrified cry
Of those below who are not asleep,
So forgive me that I did not know
Of the scratching on coffin board
As this went on so far below
Their entreaties went ignored.
So on I sauntered, safely above
But pulled them thrice upon a string
While I searched for my lost love
Through the darkness came - a ring.
In that moment I was faltered
But no help was silence bringing,
I listened hard, was still and halted,
Then heard again the ringing.
This eerie noise had the silence broken
Chilling musings I was gleaning,
No cries were heard and no words spoken
T’was tacit yet full of meaning.
One, two, three times a knell
So much terror this did contrive,
For ringing thrice upon a bell
Meant somebody buried alive!
From whence had this tocsin come
From a side or from behind,
Whensoever the sound came from
The source I had to find.
Beaneath the graves deprived of air
Awoken from cataleptic state
A living person lay somewhere here
And I had no more time to wait.
I hastened on the ground above
Fear was hammering in my head,
“Is it you my love, precious lost love?
I knew you were not dead!”
I nearly betook myself to madness
While searching for the puller of the string
But silence resumed as did my sadness-
No more could I hear the ring.
The churchyard resumed it’s ghostly grace
As I swiftly made to leave,
Now a more horrid and bristling place
I was surcease of want to grieve.
Dark and quietude clutched the air
On that grim and doleful eventide,
Left that tenebrous boneyard there
For one who was not dead had died.