You remember the hall on the corner? <br />To-night as I walked down street <br />I heard the sound of music, <br />And the rhythmic beat and beat, <br />In time to the pulsing measure <br />Of lightly tripping feet. <br /> <br /> <br />And I turned and entered the doorway- <br />It was years since I had been there- <br />Years, and life seemed altered: <br />Pleasure had changed to care. <br />But again I was hearing the music <br />And watching the dancers fair. <br /> <br /> <br />And then, as I stood and listened, <br />The music lost its glee; <br />And instead of the merry waltzers <br />There were ghosts of the Used-to-be- <br />Ghosts of the pleasure-seekers <br />Who once had danced with me. <br /> <br /> <br />Oh, 'twas a ghastly picture! <br />Oh, 'twas a gruesome crowd! <br />Each bearing a skull on his shoulder, <br />Each trailing a long white shroud, <br />As they whirled in the dance together, <br />And the music shrieked aloud. <br /> <br /> <br />As they danced, their dry bones rattled <br />Like shutters in a blast; <br />And they stared from eyeless sockets <br />On me as they circled past; <br />And the music that kept them whirling <br />Was a funeral dirge played fast. <br /> <br /> <br />Some of them wore their face-cloths, <br />Others were rotted away. <br />Some had mould on their garments, <br />And some seemed dead but a day. <br />Corpses all, but I knew them <br />As friends, once blithe and gay. <br /> <br /> <br />Beauty and strength and manhood- <br />And this was the end of it all: <br />Nothing but phantoms whirling <br />In a ghastly skeleton ball. <br />But the music ceased-and they vanished, <br />And I came away from the hall.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-phantom-ball/
