文档介绍：MANY VOICES
MANY VOICES
By E. Nesbit
1
MANY VOICES
POEM: THE RETURN
The grass was gray with the moonlit dew, The stones were white as I
came through; I came down the path by the thirteen yews, Through the
blocks of shade that the moonlight hews. And when I came to the high
lych-gate I waited awhile where the corpses wait; Then I came down the
road where the moonlight lay Like the fallen ghost of the light of day.
The bats shrieked high in their zigzag flight, The owls' spread wings
were quiet and white, The wind and the poplar gave sigh for sigh, And all
about were the rustling shy Little live creatures that love the night - Little
wild creatures timid and free. I passed, and they were not afraid of me.
It was over the meadow and down the lane The way e to my
house again: Through the wood where the lovers talk, And the ghosts, they
say, get leave to walk. I wore the clothes that we all must wear, And no
one saw me walking there, No one saw my pale feet pass By my garden
path to my garden grass. My garden was hung with the veil of spring -
Plum-tree and pear-tree blossoming; It lay in the moon's cold sheet of light
In garlands and silence, wondrous and white As a dead bride decked for
her burying.
Then I saw the face of my house Held close in the arms of the
blossomed boughs: I leaned my face to the window bright To feel if the
heart of my house beat right. The firelight hung it with fitful gold; It was
warm as the house of the dead is cold. I saw the settles, the candles tall,
The black-faced presses against the wall, Polished beechwood and shining
brass, The gleam of china, the glitter of glass, All the little things that were
home to me - Everything as it used to be.
Then I said, "The fire of life still burns, And I have returned whence
none returns: I will warm my hands where the fire is lit, I will warm my
heart in the heart of it!" So I called aloud to the one within: "Open, open,
and let me in! Let me in to the fire and