Who's That?

Who's That? written by Walter de la Mare

The Veil and Other Poems (1921)

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Who's that? Who's that? ...
Oh, only a leaf on the stone;
And the sigh of the air in the fire.

Yet it seemed, as I sat,
Came company - not my own;
Stood there, with ardent gaze over dark, bowed shoulder thrown
Till the dwindling flames leaped higher,
And showed fantasy flown.

Yet though the cheat is clear -
From transient illusion grown,
In the vague of my mind those eyes

Still haunt me. One stands so near
I could take his hand, and be gone:-
No more in this house of dreams to sojourn aloof, alone:
Could sigh, with full heart, and arise.
And choke, 'Lead on!'

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