Life and Thought have gone away
Side by side,
Leaving door and windows wide.
Careless tenants they!
All within is dark as night:
In the windows is no light;
And no murmur at the door,
So frequent on its hinge before.
Close the door; the shutters close;
Or through the windows we shall see
The nakedness and vacancy
Of the dark deserted house.
Come away: no more of mirth
Is here or merry-making sound.
The house was builded of the earth,
And shall fall again to ground.
Come away: for Life and Thought
Here no longer dwell;
But in a city glorious -
A great and distant city -have bought
A mansion incorruptible.
Would they could have stayed with us!
the poem expresses the decay and ruin of the body by age. It is beautifully symbolic. The last verse suggests the possibility of life in heaven I like the simplicity of the last line....
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I like the use for the changing rhyme scheme in the poem. Rhyme scheme for the complete poem: (abba ccdd effe ghgh ijkijk) .....................................eveloped, paired, enveloped, alternating, repeated-list ....................................(13 different rhymes) some of them even slant rhyme a poet friend RH Peat