Poetry for Halloween: The White Room Ghost

We’re in the spooky season so here’s a poem I wrote about a ghostly experience recorded in the history of Cotehele Hall, in Cormwall. I wrote it back in 2012 as an entry to a competition run by the National Trust to compose a poem about the incident. I won second prize. 

I was reminded of Cotehele Hall because I’m currently reading The Season of Frost and Fire, by Rebecca Beattie. It begins by describing decorating the hall for winter festivities and I’ll be reviewing the book on my blog soon. In the meantime, here’s my poem:

The White Room Ghost

Who’s that?

Grey shade who steals my sleep,

An honest man am I.

A lawyer and a loyal friend

Invited to the tenants’ feast

At Earl of Edgcumbe’s grand estate.

Tonight we dined on goodly fare,

Roast beef and pud by a roaring fire.

With wine and punch we drank our fill,

Toasting those we hold most dear

I last retired at evening’s end

To the white room and houseguest bed.

I curtained out the winter chill,

banked the fire and laid my head.

 Yet my slumber did not last.

A figure glided through the room

I woke to see in awful dread

it fix its glowering eyes on me.

Who’s that?

I called in utmost fright.

No answer

Gave the shade to me

 It slunk away and disappeared,

That dim grey shade who stole my sleep.

Although I searched the room in vain

I could not find where it did creep.

 Embers glowed within the hearth

Throwing shadows on the pallid walls,

Sleep was lost and night was long.

I shivered gainst the ghost’s return.

At dawn of day such things seem clear

A secret door and servant’s tread

Explain away the ghostly form;

And yet the night returns its dread.

In that white room

I’ll sleep no more.

Copyright Lucya Starza 2012

The picture is The Court Dinner at Cotehele by Nicholas Condy (–1857)

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https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/12/poetry-darkness.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/11/the-poetry-of-tarot-four-of-swords.html

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