Another prospect pleased the builder’s eye,
And Fashion tenanted (where Fashion wanes)
Here in the sorrowful suburban lanes
When first these gables rose against the sky.
Relic of a romantic taste gone by,
This stately monument alone remains,
Vacant, with lichened walls and window-panes
Blank as the windows of a skull. But I,
On evenings when autumnal winds have stirred
In the porch-vines, to this gray oracle
Have laid a wondering ear and oft-times heard,
As from the hollow of a stranded shell,
Old voices echoing (or my fancy erred)
Things indistinct, but not insensible.
(Alan Seeger)
More Poetry from Alan Seeger:
- I have a Rendezvous with Death (Alan Seeger Poems)
- Juvenilia, An OdeTo Natural Beauty (Alan Seeger Poems)
- Paris (Alan Seeger Poems)
- Translations (Alan Seeger Poems)
- A Message To America (Alan Seeger Poems)
- Ode In Memory Of The American Volunteers Fallen For France (Alan Seeger Poems)