"The Dead"

The Dead

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 Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).