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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HAUNTED HOMES OF ENGLAND by ANDREW LANG

Poet Analysis

Last Line: FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

The haunted homes of England,
How eerily they stand,
While through them flit their ghosts-to wit,
The Monk with the Red Hand;
The Eyeless Girl-an awful spook-
To stop the boldest breath,
The boy that inked his copybook,
And so got 'wopped' to death!


Call them not shams-from haunted Glamis
To haunted Woodhouselea,
I mark in hosts the grisly ghosts
I hear the fell Banshie!
I know the spectral dog that howls
Before the death of squires;
In my 'Ghosts'-guide' addresses hide
For Podmore and for Myers!


I see the vampire climb the stairs
From vaults below the church;
And hark! the pirate's spectre swears!
O psychical research,
Canst thou not hear what meets my ear,
The viewless wheels that come?
The wild Banshie that wails to thee?
The Drummer with his drum?


O haunted homes of England,
Though tenantless ye stand,
Wit next hit h none content to pay the rent,
Through all the shadowy land,
Now, science true will find in you
A sympathetic perch,
And take you all, both grange and hall,
For psychical research.






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