A nameless presence presses close to the speaker’s window and body. It seems half ghost, half night air: its toes trail through moonlight, its fingernails flash among the treetops, and its lips and breath reach into the room. The speaker feels it as something intimate and unwanted — breath creeping over their body and pooling under their knees, a mouth swaying against the window frame. The strange detail that the moonlight lies bright on the floor “without a shadow” makes the figure feel even more unreal and eerie. There is no solid body, only a force. The final sounds — a hare strangling in the forest and the wind ripping a shutter loose — sharpen the sense of violence and dread. The poem creates a suffocating, nightmare-like mood, as if the outside dark has slipped into the room and wrapped itself around the speaker.
Haunted — Summary
See ! He trails his toes Through the long streaks of moonlight. And the nails of his fingers glitter : They claw and flash among the tree-tops.
His lips suck at my open window. And his breath creeps about my body And lies in pools under my knees.
I can see his mouth sway and wobble. Sticking itself against the window-jambs.
But the moonlight is bright on the floor, Without a shadow.
Hark ! A hare is strangling in the forest. And the wind tears a shutter from the wall.