SOME dreams we have are nothing else but dreams, Yet others of our most romantic schemes It might be only on enchanted ground; A residence for woman, child, and man, 208 THE HAUNTED HOUSE. Unhinged the iron gates half open hung, No dog was at the threshold, great or small; Not one domestic feature. No human figure stirr'd, to go or come, No face look'd forth from shut or open casement; No chimney smoked-there Home From parapet to basement. was no sign of With shatter'd panes the grassy court was starr'd; The time-worn coping-stone had tumbled after ! And thro' the ragged roof the sky shone, barr'd With naked beam and rafter. O'er all there hung a shadow and a fear; THE HAUNTED HOUSE. The flow'r grew wild and rankly as the weed, And vagrant plans of parasitic breed But gay or gloomy, stedfast or infirm, No heart was there to heed the hour's duration; All times and tides were lost in one long term Of stagnant desolation. The wren had built within the Porch, she found 209 The rabbit wild and gray, that flitted thro' vanished, But leisurely and bold, as if he knew His enemy was banish'd. The wary crow,—the pheasant from the woods— 66 shocking tameness." P 210 THE HAUNTED HOUSE. The coot was swimming in the reedy pond, The moping heron, motionless and stiff, No sound was heard except, from far away, But Echo never mocked the human tongue; And its deserted Garden. * * * Thomas Hood. |