The speaker is alone at dusk in a woodland he once walked with someone he loves, and he aches for her to be close again. As he moves through the fading light, he recalls intimate details: the nightjar’s call, the wild rose closing for sleep, the sound of her name spoken across the valley. Those memories sharpen the emptiness he feels now. Then he sees a flickering, ghostlike light among the shadowy paths—something that seems to answer when he calls her name, but only taunts him with a distant, unreal happiness. The atmosphere is tender and elegiac, but also faintly eerie. Longing turns the familiar landscape into something haunted, as if his desire has conjured a presence that cannot truly comfort him. His repeated plea—“be near to me to-night”—feels desperate, intimate, and full of ache.
In Absence — Summary
My lovely one, be near to me to-night For now I need you most, since I have gone Through the sparse woodland in the fading light, Where in time past we two have walked alone, Heard the loud nightjar spin his pleasant note And seen the wild rose folded up for sleep And whispered, though the soft word choked my throat, Your dear name out across the valley deep. Be near to me, for now I need you most. To-night I saw an unsubstantial flame Flickering along those shadowy paths, a ghost That turned to me and answered to your name, Mocking me with a wraith of far delight. . . . My lovely one, be near to me to-night.