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Christina Georgina Rossetti - The Ghost’s Petition
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`There`s a footstep coming: look out and see,`
  `The leaves are falling, the wind is calling;
No one cometh across the lea.`—

`There`s a footstep coming; O sister, look.`—
  `The ripple flashes, the white foam dashes;
No one cometh across the brook.`—

`But he promised that he would come:
  To-night, to-morrow, in joy or sorrow,
He must keep his word, and must come home.

`For he promised that he would come: 
  His word was given; from earth or heaven,
He must keep his word, and must come home.

`Go to sleep, my sweet sister Jane;
  You can slumber, who need not number
Hour after hour, in doubt and pain.

`I shall sit here awhile, and watch;
  Listening, hoping, for one hand groping
In deep shadow to find the latch.`

After the dark, and before the light,
  One lay sleeping; and one sat weeping, 
Who had watched and wept the weary night.

After the night, and before the day,
  One lay sleeping; and one sat weeping—
Watching, weeping for one away.

There came a footstep climbing the stair;
  Some one standing out on the landing
Shook the door like a puff of air—

Shook the door, and in he passed.
  Did he enter? In the room centre
Stood her husband: the door shut fast. 

`O Robin, but you are cold—
  Chilled with the night-dew: so lily-white you
Look like a stray lamb from our fold.

`O Robin, but you are late:
  Come and sit near me—sit here and cheer me.`—
(Blue the flame burnt in the grate.)

`Lay not down your head on my breast:
  I cannot hold you, kind wife, nor fold you
In the shelter that you love best.

`Feel not after my clasping hand: 
  I am but a shadow, come from the meadow
Where many lie, but no tree can stand.

`We are trees which have shed their leaves:
  Our heads lie low there, but no tears flow there;
Only I grieve for my wife who grieves.

`I could rest if you would not moan
  Hour after hour; I have no power
To shut my ears where I lie alone.

`I could rest if you would not cry;
  But there`s no sleeping while you sit weeping— 
Watching, weeping so bitterly.`—

`Woe`s me! woe`s me! for this I have heard.
  Oh night of sorrow!—oh black to-morrow!
Is it thus that you keep your word?

`O you who used so to shelter me
  Warm from the least wind—why, now the east wind
Is warmer than you, whom I quake to see.

`O my husband of flesh and blood,
  For whom my mother I left, and brother,
And all I had, accounting it good, 

`What do you do there, underground,
  In the dark hollow? I`m fain to follow.
What do you do there?—what have you found?`—

`What I do there I must not tell:
  But I have plenty: kind wife, content ye:
It is well with us—it is well.

`Tender hand hath made our nest;
  Our fear is ended, our hope is blended
With present pleasure, and we have rest.`—

`Oh, but Robin, I`m fain to come, 
  If your present days are so pleasant;
For my days are so wearisome.

`Yet I`ll dry my tears for your sake:
  Why should I tease you, who cannot please you
Any more with the pains I take?`
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