Written at Ludlow Castle
(in the hall where comus was
first performed)
Where wall and sill and broken window-frame
Are bright with flowers unroofed against the
skies,
And nothing but the nesting jackdaws’ cries
Breaks the hushed even, once imperial came
The muse that moved transfiguring the name
Of Puritan, and beautiful and wise
The verses fell, forespeaking Paradise,
And poetry set all this hall aflame.
Now silence has come down upon the place
Where life and song so wonderfully went,
And the mole’s afoot now where that passion
rang,
Yet Comus now first moves his laurelled pace,
For song and life for ever are unspent,
And they are more than ghosts who lived and
sang.
