Picture Show (Sassoon collection)/Wraiths

by Siegfried Sassoon

WRAITHS

 

They know not the green leaves;In whose earth-haunting dreamDimly the forest heaves,And voiceless goes the stream.Strangely they seek a placeIn love's night-memoried hall;Peering from face to face,Until some heart shall callAnd keep them, for a breath,Half-mortal...(Hark to the rain!)...They are dead...(O hear how deathGropes on the shutter'd pane!)