名人诗歌|Haunted

EVENING was in the wood louring with storm.

A time of drought had sucked the weedy pool

And baked the channels； birds had done with song.

Thirst was a dream of fountains in the moon

Or willow-music blown across the water

Leisurely^{1 sliding on by weir2 and mill.}

Uneasy was the man who wandered brooding

His face a little #CCCCFFr than the dusk.

A drone of sultry wings flickerd in his head.

The end of sunset burning thro the boughs³

Died in a smear^{4 of red； exhausted5 hours}

Cumberd and ugly sorrows hemmed^{6 him in.}

He thought： Somewhere theres thunder as he strove

To shake off dread^{7； he dared not look behind him}

But stood the sweat of horror on his face.

He blunderd down a path trampling^{8 on thistles}

In sudden race to leave the ghostly trees.

And： Soon Ill be in open fields he thought

And half remembered starlight on the meadows

Scent^{9 of mown grass and voices of tired men}

Fading along the field-paths； home and sleep

And cool-swept upland spaces whispering leaves

And far off the long churring night-jars note.

But something in the wood trying to daunt^{10 him}

Led him confused in circles through the thicket^11.

He was forgetting his old wretched folly¹²

And freedom was his need； his throat was choking.

Barbed brambles gripped and clawed him round his legs

And he floundered over snags and hidden stumps^13.

Mumbling^{14： I will get out！ I must get out！}

Butting^{15 and thrusting up the baffling gloom}

Pausing to listen in a space twixt thorns

He peers around with peering frantic^{16 eyes.}

An evil creature in the twilight^{17 looping}

Flapped blindly in his face. Beating it off

He screeched^{18 in terror and straightway something clambered}

Heavily from an oak and dropped bent^{19 double}

To shamble at him zigzag^{20 squat21 and bestial22.}

Headlong he charges down the wood and falls

With roaring brainagonythe snapt spark

And blots^{23 of green and purple in his eyes.}

Then the slow fingers groping on his neck

And at his heart the strangling clasp of death.