Two Houses + 

Between a sunny bank and the sun + 

The farmhouse smiles + 

On the riverside plat: + 

No other one + 

So pleasant to look at + 

And remember, for many miles, + 

So velvet-hushed and cool under the warm tiles. + 

Not far from the road it lies, yet caught + 

Far out of reach + 

Of the road’s dust + 

And the dusty thought + 

Of passers-by, though each + 

Stops, and turns, and must + 

Look down at it like a wasp at the muslined peach. + 

But another house stood there long before: + 

And as if above graves + 

Still the turf heaves + 

Above its stones: + 

Dark hangs the sycamore, + 

Shadowing kennel and bones + 

And the black dog that shakes his chain and moans. + 

And when he barks, over the river + 

Flashing fast, + 

Dark echoes reply, + 

And the hollow past + 

Half yields the dead that never + 

More than half hidden lie: + 

And out they creep and back again for ever. + 