You remember the hall on the corner?
To-night as I walked down street I heard the sound of music, And the rhythmic beat and beat, In time to the pulsing measure Of lightly tripping feet.
And I turned and entered the doorway -
It was years since I had been there -
Years, and life seemed altered:
Pleasure had changed to care.
But again I was hearing the music And watching the dancers fair.
And then, as I stood and listened, The music lost its glee;And instead of the merry waltzers There were ghosts of the Used-to-be -Ghosts of the pleasure-seekers Who once had danced with me.
Oh, 'twas a ghastly picture!
Oh, 'twas a gruesome crowd!
Each bearing a skull on his shoulder, Each trailing a long white shroud, 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.
