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| ALL houses wherein men have lived and died | |
| Are haunted houses. Through the open doors | |
| The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, | |
| With feet that make no sound upon the floors. | |
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| We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, | 5 |
| Along the passages they come and go, | |
| Impalpable impressions on the air, | |
| A sense of something moving to and fro. | |
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| There are more guests at table than the hosts | |
| Invited; the illuminated hall | 10 |
| Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, | |
| As silent as the pictures on the wall. | |
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| The stranger at my fireside cannot see | |
| The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear; | |
| He but perceives what is; while unto me | 15 |
| All that has been is visible and clear. | |
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| We have no title-deeds to house or lands; | |
| Owners and occupants of earlier dates | |
| From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, | |
| And hold in mortmain still their old estates. | 20 |
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| The spirit-world around this world of sense | |
| Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere | |
| Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense | |
| A vital breath of more ethereal air. | |
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| Our little lives are kept in equipoise | 25 |
| By opposite attractions and desires; | |
| The struggle of the instinct that enjoys, | |
| And the more noble instinct that aspires. | |
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| These perturbations, this perpetual jar | |
| Of earthly wants and aspirations high, | 30 |
| Come from the influence of an unseen star, | |
| An undiscovered planet in our sky. | |
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| And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud | |
| Throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light, | |
| Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd | 35 |
| Into the realm of mystery and night,— | |
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| So from the world of spirits there descends | |
| A bridge of light, connecting it with this, | |
| O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends, | |
| Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss. | 40 |
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