Yes --- that was really his gift. As a very small child, I found his "Someone" (almost the first poem I can remember knowing) so deliciously weird, just mysterious enough to be not exactly scary. At 2 or 3, you don't need a whole ghost story. Just "I opened the door and nobody was there" is enough (to sort of more or less repeat a G.K. Chesterton quotation that's been making the rounds).
It's the benevolent poetic version of Oliver Onions' "Fair Beckoning One." A fitting comparison since both authors are classics of classical weird and ghost tales.
Thank you for including a poet who is generally under-appreciated. I value him
for his music. His Memoirs of a Midget makes for strange and captivating reading.
Fabulous poem. Shades of Edgar Allen Poe, but much sweeter.
Oh, I love this: it’s so efficient. While short and repetitive, it keeps the reader on their toes.
I love the built up delay to the last line in the first stanza, and the “… burning low…burning on” of the candle.
And the switching up of the meter in line 4 of the next stanza, combined with the immediacy of “no voice”.
He knows how to get under your skin!
Yes --- that was really his gift. As a very small child, I found his "Someone" (almost the first poem I can remember knowing) so deliciously weird, just mysterious enough to be not exactly scary. At 2 or 3, you don't need a whole ghost story. Just "I opened the door and nobody was there" is enough (to sort of more or less repeat a G.K. Chesterton quotation that's been making the rounds).
And this poem is a more grown-up version of same. "Somebody kissed me, but it was nobody."
ETA: Or maaaaaybe it's the ghost of Charles d'Orleans! Who can tell!
It's the benevolent poetic version of Oliver Onions' "Fair Beckoning One." A fitting comparison since both authors are classics of classical weird and ghost tales.
IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF 'LIPS' HOOLIGAN, "BETTER A SPECTRAL KISS THAN NO KISS AT ALL!"
Ha, truly.