Alulvan

Alulvan written by Walter de la Mare

Songs of Childhood (1902)

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    The sun is clear of bird and cloud,
    The grass shines windless, grey, and still,
    In dusky ruin the owl dreams on,
    The cuckoo echoes on the hill;
      Yet soft along Alulvan's walks
        The ghost at noonday stalks.

    His eyes in shadow of his hat
    Stare on the ruins of his house;
    His cloak, up-fasten'd with a brooch,
    Of faded velvet grey as mouse,
      Brushes the roses as he goes:
        Yet wavers not one rose.

    The wild birds in a cloud fly up
    From their sweet feeding in the fruit;
    The droning of the bees and flies
    Rises gradual as a lute;
      Is it for fear the birds are flown,
        And shrills the insect-drone?

    Thick is the ivy o'er Alulvan,
    And crisp with summer-heat its turf;
    Far, far across its empty pastures
    Alulvan's sands are white with surf:
      And he himself is grey as sea,
        Watching beneath an elder-tree.

    All night the fretful, shrill Banshee
    Lurks in the chambers' dark festoons,
    Calling for ever, o'er garden and river,
    Through magpie changing of the moons:
      'Alulvan, O, alas! Alulvan,
        The doom of lone Alulvan!'

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