[The Futility of Lamentation]

[MissingBob]

[The Futility of Lamentation]

Due to the harsh weather,
I'm stuck at home this morning
for longer than usual,

unbeknownst to the dogs,
who are locked up in the basement.

Still, they whine and howl,
bemoaning their aloneness.

It strikes me that I'm no less naive
to lament the absence
of those who never truly departed.

I agree with m most of the already suggested contractions. What I would like to point out though, is that the narrator is rendered rather inconsiderate of the dogs in the last two stanzas, which takes away from the poem. Since, as already pointed out by others, they are not alone, they may well lament that they are locked up in the basement, which kills the similarities between the narrator and the dogs. They appear to lament for a "mature" reason, while the narrator's lamentations may well be naive. In other words would drop the "still" and the "naive" and look for another comparison.