The House of Silence
“THAT is a quiet place—That house in the trees with the shady lawn.”“—If, child, you knew what there goes onYou would not call it a quiet place.Why, a phantom abides there, the last of its race,And a brain spins there till dawn.”
“But I see nobody there,—Nobody moves about the green,Or wanders the heavy trees between.”“—Ah, that’s because you do not bearThe visioning powers of souls who dareTo pierce the material screen.
“Morning, noon, and night,Mid those funereal shades that seemThe uncanny scenery of a dream,Figures dance to a mind with sight,And music and laughter like floods of lightMake all the precincts gleam.
“It is a poet’s bower,Through which there pass, in fleet arrays,Long teams of all the years and days,Of joys and sorrows, of earth and heaven,That meet mankind in its ages seven,An aion in an hour.”
Words in this poem
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- uncanny a.
- Not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The House of Silence is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, The House of Silence, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-house-of-silence.html, id L24156.
Form and metre
The House of Silence is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBAAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAAB placeA · lawnB · onB · placeA · raceA · dawnB
- 2 ABBAAB thereA · greenB · betweenB · bearA · dareA · screenB
- 3 ABBAAB nightA · seemB · dreamB · sightA · lightA · gleamB
- 4 ABBCCA bowerA · arraysB · daysB · heavenC · sevenC · hourA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “THAT is a quiet place— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That house in the trees with the shady lawn.” | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| “—If, child, you knew what there goes on | 8 | ········ |
| You would not call it a quiet place. | 8 | ······/· |
| Why, a phantom abides there, the last of its race, | 12 | ··/˘˘/······ |
| And a brain spins there till dawn.” | 7 | ······· |
| “But I see nobody there,— | 7 | ···/··· |
| Nobody moves about the green, | 8 | /······· |
| Or wanders the heavy trees between.” | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| “—Ah, that’s because you do not bear | 8 | ········ |
| The visioning powers of souls who dare | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| To pierce the material screen. | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| “Morning, noon, and night, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Mid those funereal shades that seem | 9 | ··˘/˘˘··· |
| The uncanny scenery of a dream, | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘··· |
| Figures dance to a mind with sight, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And music and laughter like floods of light | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Make all the precincts gleam. | 6 | ···/·· |
| “It is a poet’s bower, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Through which there pass, in fleet arrays, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Long teams of all the years and days, | 8 | ········ |
| Of joys and sorrows, of earth and heaven, | 9 | ···/˘···/ |
| That meet mankind in its ages seven, | 9 | ··//··/˘/ |
| An aion in an hour.” | 6 | ····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.