55790: Two Houses

<p dir="ltr"> Between a sunny bank and the sun<br> The farmhouse smiles<br> On the riverside plat:<br> No other one<br> So pleasant to look at<br> And remember, for many miles,<br> So velvet hushed and cool under the warm tiles.<br> Not far from the road it lies, yet caught<br> Far out of reach<br> Of the road's dust<br> And the dusty thought<br> Of passers-by, though each<br> Stops, and turns, and must<br> Look down at it like a wasp at the muslined peach.<br> But another house stood there long before:<br> And as if above graves<br> Still the turf heaves<br> Above its stones:<br> Dark hangs the sycamore,<br> Shadowing kennel and bones<br> And the black dog that shakes his chain and moans.<br> And when he barks, over the river<br> Flashing fast,<br> Dark echoes reply,<br> And the hollow past<br> Half yields the dead that never<br> More than half hidden lie:<br> And out they creep and back again for ever.<br></p>