he only Ghost I ever saw
Was dressed in Mechlin—so—
He wore no sandal on his foot—
And stepped like flakes of snow—
His mien, was soundless, like the Bird—
But rapid—like the Roe—
His fashions, quaint, Mosaic—
Or haply, Mistletoe—
His conversation—seldom—
His laughter, like the Breeze—
That dies away in Dimples
Among the pensive Trees—
Our interview—was transient—
Of me, himself was shy—
And God forbid I look behind—
Since that appalling Day!
— Emily Dickinson, The Only Ghost I Ever Saw
————
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The Professor's Convatorium 
One of my favorite poets!
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Mine as well! Naturally we two fine sophisticated gentlemen have exceptional taste in poetry and prose, and we do not mind saying so, eh? Just don’t look in our closets or wander into the basements, right? 😉
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I wish I could write that. Always a pleasure
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Ugh, you and me both Jim. There’s one in particular that I absolutely go BATTY over and get goose-bumps. 👻🧛♂️🦇🎃
But I’m saving that poem for October. 😉 Going to make this a theme throughout late Sept and all of next month until Nov. 1st.
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Strange use of capitals, eh? Well, unconventional. Great verse, though!
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It is strange. Is that a 19th-century thing Emily was using?
Anyway, thank you H. Fall and October are one of my favorite times of the year! I SO enjoy making a “polite” mockery of superstitions and the oogily-boogily paranormal heebie-jeebie stuff we weird humans imagine and freak ourselves out! 😆
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Hello Professor. Not your normal in depth exploring stuff. I was able to read this one in only three tries. 😀😁😂🤣😃😄😍😍 Be well. Hugs
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Hahaha! Yes, I took a detour with this one didn’t I Scottie? 😛 And you’ll be elated to know that I am doing a Hallows theme like this one until Nov. 1st! 🎃👻🧛🦇
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This is a great Halloween poem in my opinion. I actually memorized it for a halloween party one time. It wasn’t easy as there is no rhyming. lol https://www.bartleby.com/235/7.html
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I’m sure that WAS hard from memory. Rhyming words and rhythm definitely help with memorizing! At least it was short and not 20 stanzas long, huh? LOL And your William Blake contribution is perfect! I did not have Fair Elenor lined up in this series Swarn. Thank you. 😉
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You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it…I thought it might fit in with your theme. When I was looking for a link for the poem so I could paste it into the comment, I noted that on the Wikipedia page for this volume of poetry by Blake they noted that this poem was not typical of the kind that he wrote, and that this poem may have actually have been a bit of a parody because of how cliche it is in the gothic style. Nevertheless I think if you like gothic poetry than this is a good one, and is often the case a talented poet can actually outdo many poets who wrote this stuff in earnest. As a good example of this Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen was sort of an attempt by Freddy Mercury to create a song that was a bit of an Elvis spoof, or to show that Elvis-style songs aren’t terribly difficult to create. And as a result he made a pretty fun song with a catchy tune. Although I would agree that it wouldn’t be the signature song that I used to describe them.
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Hah! And I would agree as well. Coming from Freddie I think there may be more there ‘between the lines’ and heart strings. 😉
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