Thomas Hardy — The sailor’s mother

       &nbsp “O whence do you come, Figure in the night-fog that chills me numb?” “I come to you across from my house up there, And I don’t mind the brine-mist clinging to me        &nbsp That blows from the quay, For I heard him in my chamber, and thought you unaware.”        &nbsp “But what did you hear, That brought you blindly knocking in this middle-watch so drear?” “My sailor son’s voice as ’twere calling at your door, And I don’t mind my bare feet clammy on the stones,        &nbsp And the blight to my bones, For he only knows of this house I lived in before.”        &nbsp “Nobody’s nigh, Woman like a skeleton, with socket-sunk eye.” “Ah - nobody’s nigh! And my life is drearisome, And this is the old home we loved in many a day        &nbsp Before he went away; And the salt fog mops me. And nobody’s come!” From “To Please his Wife.”