The speaker rents a room beside a chapel, and from his window he watches women from the countryside going to Mass, weddings, and baptisms. He sits there lonely, seeing so many lives pass by, and he becomes envious of God—everyone goes next door to the church, while he remains outside, watching. Then the poem turns quietly dramatic. Now he is with someone he loves, hidden at a window where no one can see them. The loneliness is replaced by intimacy, but the mood darkens: the Lord God, he says, is jealous of the two of them. That final line suggests a secret love that feels stolen or forbidden, watched by a God who now envies what they have. The mood is close, hushed, and slightly ominous—equal parts desire and dread.
Dread — Summary
Beside a chapel I’d a room looked down, Where all the women from the farms and town, On Holy-days and Sundays used to pass To marriages, and christenings, and to Mass. Then I sat lonely watching score and score, Till I turned jealous of the Lord next door.... Now by this window, where there’s none can see, The Lord God’s jealous of yourself and me.