Poems, Series 3: XIV. A Well.

XIV. A Well.

WHAT mystery pervades a well!
        The water lives so far,
Like neighbor from another world
        Residing in a jar.

The grass does not appear afraid;
        I often wonder he
Can stand so close and look so bold
        At what is dread to me.

Related somehow they may be, --
        The sedge stands next the sea,
Where he is floorless, yet of fear
        No evidence gives he.

But nature is a stranger yet;
        The ones that cite her most
Have never passed her haunted house,
        Nor simplified her ghost.

To pity those that know her not
        Is helped by the regret
That those who know her, know her less
        The nearer her they get.

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