Poems (Piatt)/Volume 2/A Tragedy of the Night
A TRAGEDY OF THE NIGHT.[AT AN EDINBURGH STREET CROSSING.]
She started suddenly from the moving mass. The wind sprang up and caught her by the shawl,And held her like a thing that dared not pass,— Then shook her for an instant. That was all.
Once beautiful, and still almost a child! She wore her wet hair round her with a grace.I saw the great eyes staring black and wild As the scared lamplights shuddered from her face.
Upon her track there followed such a cry: "Will you come back, or no?" was all it said,—"Will you come back,or no?" The Voice wailed by; On—to the Pit?—the girlish phantom fled.