Page:Late lyrics and earlier, with many other verses (IA latelyricsearlie00hardiala).pdf/199

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

A HOUSE WITH A HISTORY


THERE is a house in a city street
Some past ones made their own;
Its floors were criss-crossed by their feet,
And their babblings beat
From ceiling to white hearth-stone.

And who are peopling its parlours now?
Who talk across its floor?
Mere freshlings are they, blank of brow,
Who read not how
Its prime had passed before

Their raw equipments, scenes, and says
Afflicted its memoried face,
That had seen every larger phase
Of human ways
Before these filled the place.

171