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William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

They That Dwell in Shadow

THEY that dwell in shadow

Perpetually roam

In leagues of spectral meadow,

By phantom miles of foam.

Their lives are very weary,

And yet they cannot die,

Leave their sea-beaches dreary,

Or change that bitter sky.

They that dwell in shadow,

They twitter like dry leaves

In talk along the meadow,

And none is glad, or grieves.

They whisper, whisper only,

And no man, save he dwell

Beside those sea waves lonely

Knows what it is they tell.

They that dwell in shadow

Are neither good nor bad;

Their hearts are like the meadow,

Monotonous and sad.

The world has died around them,

The skies are blank above:

I happened there and found them—

Their whispers were of love.

The Midland, A Magazine of the Middle West