Poetry Performed Episode 003 - Hallow-E'en, 1914 by Winifred M. Letts



Episode 003 - Hallow-E’en, 1914 by Winifred M. Letts

This is Poetry Performed. I’m A.S. Freeman. Halloween. All Hallow’s Eve. As we approach the end of October, we are entering a time of year where we reflect on the various souls lost over the past year, past decade, and throughout the history of our own families. The idea of coming home runs through today’s poem, Hallow-E’en, 1914 by Winifred M. Letts.

Hallow-E’en, 1914 by Winifred M. Letts

“Why do you wait at your door, woman,
Alone in the night?”
“I am waiting for one who will come, stranger,
To show him a light.
He will see me afar on the road
And be glad at the sight.”

“Have you no fear in your heart, woman,
To stand there alone?
There is comfort for you and kindly content
Beside the hearthstone.”
But she answered, “No rest can I have
Till I welcome my own.”

“Is it far he must travel to-night,
This man of your heart?”
“Strange lands that I know not and pitiless seas
Have kept us apart,
And he travels this night to his home
Without guide, without chart.”
“And has he companions to cheer him?”
“Aye, many," she said.
“The candles are lighted, the hearthstones are swept,
The fires glow red.
We shall welcome them out of the night—
Our home-coming dead.”

That was Hallow-E’en, 1914 by Winifred M. Letts. Winifred M. Letts was an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. She wrote throughout her life, and served as a nurse in World War 1. She most famously wrote about her experiences during that time in life. She was born in 1882, and died in 1972.

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