Spirits in Bondage

by C.S. Lewis

VI. Spooks

Last night I dreamed that I was come again
     Unto the house where my beloved dwells
     After long years of wandering and pain.

     And I stood out beneath the drenching rain
     And all the street was bare, and black with night,
     But in my true love's house was warmth and light.

     Yet I could not draw near nor enter in,
     And long I wondered if some secret sin
     Or old, unhappy anger held me fast;

     Till suddenly it came into my head
     That I was killed long since and lying dead—
     Only a homeless wraith that way had passed.

     So thus I found my true love's house again
     And stood unseen amid the winter night
     And the lamp burned within, a rosy light,
     And the wet street was shining in the rain.