All Hallows Night
All Hallows Night
by Lizette Woodworth Reese
Two things I did
on Hallows Night:—
Made my house
April-clear;
Left open wide my
door
To the ghosts of
the year.
Then one came in.
Across the room
It stood up long
and fair—
The ghost that was
myself—
And gave me stare for
stare.
This poem takes the Halloween theme one step further. The narrator clears out the house to welcome in the spirits - possibly a risky venture to begin with and then it is a spirit version of themselves which enters. It sounds like a great horror story for a cold October night with only the moon and a small bonfire for company.
In keeping with Halloween being All Hallows Eve, the spirit is not a standard ghost meant to scare us, it is 'long and fair', which makes it sound both beautiful and somehow good. Which works well until it also gives 'stare for stare', which brings us right back to a scary thrill at the end of the poem.
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