Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO JANE by JOHN COULTER

First Line: AGAINST A SLOPING WOOD IT STANDS
Last Line: IS THIS THE HOUSE OUR DEAD LOVE BUILT?
Subject(s): FORESTS; HOUSES; WIND; WOODS;

Against a sloping wood it stands,
A tiny house, half-hidden there.
The crows fly round in shadowy bands;
The grey field-mice run everywhere.
Dead ivy's festooned from the eaves.
There's grey moss on the shingle-roof.

The wind against the shutter grieves.
The evening sunlight hangs aloof.

The lock is frozen fast with rust,
But through the windows I can see
The cracked walls, bare and thick with dust,
And some dark fluid, that crazily
Across the sunken floor is spilt . . .
Is this the house our dead love built?



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