Sheila, dark Sheila, what is that you're seeing? What is it that you are seeing, that you're seeing in the fire? I see a lad that loves me.... And I see a lad that leaves me.... And a third lad, a Shadow Lad.... (and he's the lad that grieves me) And whatever I am seeing, There's no fearing and no fleeing.... But whatever I am seeing, it is not my heart's desire....
Sheila, dark Sheila, with whom will you be roaming? With whom will you be roaming when the summer day has flown? A lad there is who loved me- but loves me now no longer, A lad there is who left me (and oh! his love grows stronger!) But wherever I go roaming, You shall never find me homing, For wherever I go roaming, I must wander all alone....
'Sheila, dark Sheila, will you listen to my pleading? Will you listen to my pleading, will you recompense my pain? For I'm the lad who loved you, the lad who so deceived you. I left you for another girl, and oh! I fear I grieved you! But if you'll hear my pleading As across the moor you're speeding, Oh! if you'll hear my pleading, I'll return to you again.'
'Sheila, dark Sheila, will you hearken to my calling! Will you hearken to my calling, as I call from far away? For I'm the lad that left you (but never could forget you), And I'm the lad that loved you from the very hour he met you! And if you'll hear my calling As the shades of night are falling, Oh! if you'll hear my calling, I'll be yours alone alway!'
But Sheila, dark Sheila, is out upon the moorland. She's out upon the moorland where the heather meets the sky! And the lads shall never find her, for there's one walks by her side there, A Stranger Lad, a Shadow Lad, who would not be denied there.... She turned her to his calling As the shades of night were falling, She turned her to his calling.... and she answered to his Cry....
First published in 1924 in a volume with the title, The Road of Dreams. Poems, Agatha Christie, 1973, Dodd, Mead & Company.