The Wife of Usher's Well

Can people really come back to life from the dead?

Jesus did, of course (although He was not just a person, but also divine) and He raised Lazarus from the dead.  In this poem, however, there is no divine intervention mentioned--the mother of the three sons declares she will wait for her sons' return forever if need be, and they do return for one night (Martinmas) whereon they revel with her and the maids of the household until dawn.

Martinmas traditionally falls on November 11, and was once observed as the beginning of Advent. Perhaps the tradition of ghost stories at Christmastime was already prevalent in this era, or this legend may have been one of the events giving rise to it.

Do ghosts experience some sort of "liberation" around Christmas? I know that for years, Christmastime was the time of year when I had the most vivid dreams of those I had lost, and not only were the dreams very vivid, I actually was able to converse with them and ask them questions. Some of them seemed confused by where they were, but some of them were glowing with vitality and joy, and looked better than I had ever seen them look when they were actually alive!

My mother's mother appeared to her after she had died, bathed in a golden light, at Christmastime.

I actually think the spirits of those who have left us can come back and communicate with us, but not all of us are able to feel their presence.  I myself have only experienced it in dreams, but my father had an interesting story to tell about spirits.

When he was a boy, one of his aunts was a "spiritualist," for lack of a better word, who conducted seances.  Out of curiosity, he attended one.  As they were all sitting in the darkness, he kept hearing someone behind him coughing, but nobody was there.

At some point in the seance, his aunt told him that his spirit guide had appeared and was standing behind him.  She was a young girl who had died of pneumonia or consumption...hence the cough he kept hearing! He fled from the room and never returned.  Years later, as a joke, we asked him what he thought she did while he was playing tennis, since she obviously had such severe respiratory problems, and he said, "Maybe she waits in the car."