Rain and wind on the roof,
And the ocean beating the shore,
And now and again a shaking of window-panes
And a rattling of the door.
Shadows upon the wall,
Wavering shadows and gray;
Lonely, heartsick, I reach my hand in the dark
For the hand that has gone away.
The dead―do they turn in their graves
On a wind-bared night like this,
And stretch their arms and yearn for the light of the hearth,
And the passionate warmth of a kiss?
“The Dead” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).