As they whirled in the dance together,
And the music shrieked aloud.

As they danced, their dry bones rattled
Like shutters in a blast;
And they stared from eyeless sockets
On me as they circled past;
And the music that kept them whirling
Was a funeral dirge played fast.

Some of them wore their face-cloths,
Others were rotted away.
Some had mould on their garments,
And some seemed dead but a day.
Corpses all, but I knew them
As friends, once blithe and gay.

Beauty and strength and manhood -
And this was the end of it all:
Nothing but phantoms whirling
In a ghastly skeleton ball.
But the music ceased--and they vanished,
And I came away from the hall.



WORDS AND THOUGHTS