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A landlord ghost! Aye, one who knows
His lease out-lived with the cock that crows,
A wraith content that contented goes.
His lease out-lived with the cock that crows,
A wraith content that contented goes.
Goes at the cry of the bird unseen,
Calling the friends of what has been;
Calling the friends of what has been;
And some it names lie sleeping near—
Ah, wake them not, friend Chanticleer!
Ah, wake them not, friend Chanticleer!
XVI
Three times it calls the end of the dream,
And still I return, for still I seem
And still I return, for still I seem
To comfort a house that lives aloof
From all who live beneath its roof.
From all who live beneath its roof.
I must return! to dispossess
Those bartered walls of loneliness:
Those bartered walls of loneliness:
Mortar and brick and iron and bole,
Where all may pass who pay their toll;
The husk of a house that has lost its soul.
Where all may pass who pay their toll;
The husk of a house that has lost its soul.
XVII
For out of that house went its soul with me,
Leaping and crying after me,
To bear me faithful company
Over a clear and quickening sea.
Leaping and crying after me,
To bear me faithful company
Over a clear and quickening sea.
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