Zilpha Marsh + 

At four o’clock in late October + 

I sat alone in the country school-house + 

Back from the road ’mid stricken fields, + 

And an eddy of wind blew leaves on the pane, + 

And crooned in the flue of the cannon-stove, + 

With its open door blurring the shadows + 

With the spectral glow of a dying fire. + 

In an idle mood I was running the planchette⁠— + 

All at once my wrist grew limp, + 

And my hand moved rapidly over the board, + 

Till the name of “Charles Guiteau” was spelled, + 

Who threatened to materialize before me. + 

I rose and fled from the room bare-headed + 

Into the dusk, afraid of my gift. + 

And after that the spirits swarmed⁠— + 

Chaucer, Caesar, Poe and Marlowe, + 

Cleopatra and Mrs. Surratt⁠— + 

Wherever I went, with messages⁠— + 

Mere trifling twaddle, Spoon River agreed. + 

You talk nonsense to children, don’t you? + 

And suppose I see what you never saw + 

And never heard of and have no word for, + 

I must talk nonsense when you ask me + 

What it is I see! + 