A Dead House + 

When the clock hath ceased to tick + 

Soul-like in the gloomy hall; + 

When the latch no more doth click + 

Tongue-like in the red peach-wall; + 

When no more come sounds of play, + 

Mice nor children romping roam, + 

Then looks down the eye of day + 

On a dead house, not a home! + 

But when, like an old sun’s ghost, + 

Haunts her vault the spectral moon; + 

When earth’s margins all are lost, + 

Melting shapes nigh merged in swoon, + 

Then a sound⁠—hark! there again!⁠— + 

No, ’tis not a nibbling mouse! + 

’Tis a ghost, unseen of men, + 

Walking through the bare-floored house! + 

And with lightning on the stair + 

To that silent upper room, + 

With the thunder-shaken air + 

Sudden gleaming into gloom, + 

With a frost-wind whistling round, + 

From the raging northern coasts, + 

Then, mid sieging light and sound, + 

All the house is live with ghosts! + 

Brother, is thy soul a cell + 

Empty save of glittering motes, + 

Where no live loves live and dwell, + 

Only notions, things, and thoughts? + 

Then thou wilt, when comes a Breath + 

Tempest-shaking ridge and post, + 

Find thyself alone with Death + 

In a house where walks no ghost. + 