Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WIDOW'S HOUSE (AT BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA), by SARAH ORNE JEWETT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: What of this house with massive walls Last Line: They smile because a soul has fled. Subject(s): Moravia & Moravians; Widows & Widowers | ||||||||
What of this house with massive walls And small-paned windows, gay with blooms? A quaint and ancient aspect falls Like pallid sunshine through the rooms. Not this new country's rush and haste Could breed, one thinks, so still a life; Here is the old Moravian home, A placid foe of worldly strife. For this roof covers, night and day, The widowed women poor and old, The mated without mates, who say Their light is out, their story told. To these the many mansions seem Dear household fires that cannot die; They wait through separation dark An endless union by and by. Each window has its watcher wan To fit the autumn afternoon, The dropping poplar leaves, the dream Of spring that faded all too soon. Upon the highest window-ledge A glowing scarlet flower shines down. Oh, wistful sisterhood, whose home Has sanctified this quiet town! Oh, hapless household, gather in The tired-hearted and the lone! What broken homes, what sundered love, What disappointment you have known! They count their little wealth of hope And spend their waiting days in peace, What comfort their poor loneliness Must find in every soul's release! And when the wailing trombones go Along the street before the dead In that Moravian custom quaint, They smile because a soul has fled. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A WIDOW SPEAKS TO THE AURORA'S OF A DECEMBER NIGHT by NORMAN DUBIE NEW AGE AT AIRPORT MESA by NORMAN DUBIE POPHAM OF THE NEW SONG: 5; FOR R.P. BLACKMUR by NORMAN DUBIE THE WIDOW OF THE BEAST OF INGOLSTADT by NORMAN DUBIE DOMESDAY BOOK: WIDOW FORTELKA by EDGAR LEE MASTERS WIDOW IN A STONE HOUSE by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER GETTING TO KNOW YOU by RUTH STONE A CAGED BIRD by SARAH ORNE JEWETT |
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