The last that lived there was an evil man; A child the last that died, Upon the mother's breast. It seemed to die by some mysterious ban; Its grave is by the side Of an old tree, whose notched and scanty leaves Repeat the tale of woe, And quiver day and night, Till the snow cometh, and a cold shroud weaves, Whiter than that below. This time of year a woman wanders there-- They say from distant lands: She wears a foreign dress, With jewels on her breast, and her fair hair In braided coils and bands. The ancient dwelling and the garden drear At night know something more: Without her foreign dress Or blazing gems, this woman stealeth near The threshold of the door. The shadow strikes against the window-pane; She thrusts the thorns away: Her eyes peer through the glass, And down the glass her great tears drip, like rain, In the gray winter day. The moon shines down the dismal garden track, And lights the little mound; But when she ventures there, The black and threatening branches wave her back, And guard the ghostly ground. What is the story of this buried Past? Were all its doors flung wide, For us to search its rooms, And we to see the race, from first to last, And how they lived and died:-- Still would it baffle and perplex the brain. But show this bitter truth: Man lives not in the past: None but a woman ever comes again Back to the House of Youth! THE HOUSE BY THE SEA. To-night I do the bidding of a ghost, A ghost that knows my misery; In the lone dark I hear his wailing boast, "Now shalt thou speak with me." Must I go back where all is desolate, Where reigns the terror of a curse, To knock, a beggar, at my father's gate, That closed upon a hearse? The old stone pier has crumbled in the sea; The tide flows through the garden wall; Where grew the lily, and where hummed the bee, Black seaweeds rise and fall. I see the empty nests beneath the eaves; No bird is near; the vines have died; The orchard trees have lost the joy of leaves, The oaks their lordly pride. Of what avail to set ajar the door Through which, when ruin fell, I fled? If on the threshold I should stand once more, Shall I behold the dead? Shall I behold, as on that fatal night, My mother from the window start, When she was blasted by the evil sight,-- The shame that broke her heart? The yellow grass grows on my sister's grave; Her room is dark--she is not there; I feel the rain, and hear the wild wind rave-- My tears, and my despair. A white-haired man is singing a sad song Amid the ashes on the hearth; "Ashes to ashes, I have moaned so long I am alone on earth." No more! no more! I cannot bear this pain; Shut the foul annals of my race; Accursed the hand that opens them again, My dowry of disgrace.