The Man Against the Sky: A Book of Poems

The Dark House

     Where a faint light shines alone,
     Dwells a Demon I have known.
     Most of you had better say
     "The Dark House", and go your way.
     Do not wonder if I stay.

     For I know the Demon's eyes,
     And their lure that never dies.
     Banish all your fond alarms,
     For I know the foiling charms
     Of her eyes and of her arms,

     And I know that in one room
     Burns a lamp as in a tomb;
     And I see the shadow glide,
     Back and forth, of one denied
     Power to find himself outside.

     There he is who is my friend,
     Damned, he fancies, to the end—
     Vanquished, ever since a door
     Closed, he thought, for evermore
     On the life that was before.

     And the friend who knows him best
     Sees him as he sees the rest
     Who are striving to be wise
     While a Demon's arms and eyes
     Hold them as a web would flies.

     All the words of all the world,
     Aimed together and then hurled,
     Would be stiller in his ears
     Than a closing of still shears
     On a thread made out of years.

     But there lives another sound,
     More compelling, more profound;
     There's a music, so it seems,
     That assuages and redeems,
     More than reason, more than dreams.

     There's a music yet unheard
     By the creature of the word,
     Though it matters little more
     Than a wave-wash on a shore—
     Till a Demon shuts a door.

     So, if he be very still
     With his Demon, and one will,
     Murmurs of it may be blown
     To my friend who is alone
     In a room that I have known.

     After that from everywhere
     Singing life will find him there;
     Then the door will open wide,
     And my friend, again outside,
     Will be living, having died.