Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERE STOOD A HOUSE, by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HERE STOOD A HOUSE, by                    
First Line: Here stood a house; we now can only guess
Last Line: Enlightening death, to me.
Subject(s): Houses, Deserted


HERE stood a house; we now can only guess
From what scant lore the bare foundation yields
The building's fashion, whose calm comeliness
Complacent looked across the fruitful fields,
This was a home -- now fire has laughed and fled
Leaving a wreck instead.

THIS was a home for human comfort raised --
Now the shy creatures of the air and grass
Nest in the blackened pit and start amazed
If any human foot too near them pass.
Merciless tranquil Nature takes again
The land she lent to men.

BUT pity not this house, for while it stood
Its walls were warm with comfort and enshrined
Glad hearts that savoured life and found it good.
It was a temple of the quiet mind.
Its very altar's consecrated glow
Has wrought its overthrow.

HERE was no shameful torture of decay;
The vivid end with sudden glory came.
In terrible beauty all was swept away,
Man's dearest art translated into flame.
So swift and shining may thy coming be,
Enlightening Death, to me.





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