Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Picture-Show. 1920.

21. Wraiths

THEY know not the green leaves;

In whose earth-haunting dream

Dimly the forest heaves,

And voiceless goes the stream.

Strangely they seek a place

In love’s night-memoried hall;

Peering from face to face,

Until some heart shall call

And keep them, for a breath,

Half-mortal … (Hark to the rain!)…

They are dead … (O hear how death

Gropes on the shutter’d pane!)