[Catherine Chandler]

I had the same reaction as Michael Cantor, i.e., the last two lines sound like they were added on to sonnetize the poem.

I also think the similarities to Poe, Eliot and Frost actually work against any sense of originality one might accord to the poem.

I also take issue with "late for appointment". I always want to hear "an", "the", "his", "her", etc.

I would prefer "sometimes come" over "come sometimes".

The Nothing Is In Store is clever.

Overall, enjoyed.

[R. Nemo Hill]

I don't have much enthusiasm for this. I can puzzle out the apparent contradiction that Maryann points out here...

My confusion is with different details: does the shade get in, or not? "Inside the doorway" conflicts with that unanswered door and that unrelenting lock.

...but in a poem this short I think the need to work out the logistics of the scenario is a waste of precious time.

All in all the scene seems too much of a stock one, the language too expected, and there is no pay-off at all. For me a sonnet is first and foremost a contained poem, and this one seems more like an introduction to something longer. The sonnet's sense of compression is missing here, and the arc of thought and description seems too languid for the form. In an effective sonnet I could imagine this entire poem taking up about two lines.

Nemo

[Rob Wright]

I'm with Michael and Catherine; the last two lines do seem tacked-on. And Nemo is right, there is no payoff. Unlike Michael, however, the abundance of adjectives did not trouble me — at least on the first reading. And the bits of rocky meter were a jarring in the otherwise smooth iambics.