My Cart 
Login 

Previous

The House with Nobody In It
by
Joyce Kilmer


Next
 

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it. 

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two. 

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside. 

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free. 

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known. 

But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet. 

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

 

This poem is in the public domain.

 


 

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) is best known for his poem, "Trees,"  but he actually produced quite a large volume of work. Had his life not ended so tragically early, many believe he would have developed into one of America's great poets. Joyce married young and fathered five children even as he was establishing himself as a teacher, writer, and lecturer. While coping with the illness of one of their children, Joyce and his wife converted from the Episcopal faith to Catholocism and he ultimately became the leading Catholic poet of his time. When World War I broke out, Joyce enlisted and had contracted to write a book about his war experiences. Unfortunately, he was killed on a French battlefield before he ever even began the book; he was only 31 when he died. Interesting side note: Joyce's father worked for Johnson & Johnson and is credited with inventing that company's famous baby powder.

 


Post New Comment:
EstherJ:
There is a sense of sadness passing an old, broken-down house but I never thought about in this way. This is a very skillful poem.
Posted 12/02/2024 05:28 PM
Ignatius53:
Joyce Kilmer was my 6th grade poet, and I learned this poem then, nearly 60 years ago. I've loved it ever since. I love old houses, love the cadence of his rhyme, love his clear images. I just searched this to reread because a small cottage across my street just changed tenants and the change reminded me of this. They just woke the house back up, and it's just beautiful to observe.
Posted 08/27/2024 11:47 PM
laurieeyebee:
We lived fifty years in the house my father bought and painstakingly restored when I was 8 years old. The original part was built in 1702 Connecticut. My father died peacefully there in 2020 and the house was immediately sold by the heirs (not me) and all that's been done is they cut down an endangered tree, slapped some ugly asphalt shingles on the roof, chopped all the floors out of the bedrooms upstairs and made them inaccessible (wonder if they sold those original 18th century wide floorboards?) and let the lawn grow 3 feet high. I am heartbroken and cannot go by it. My parents must be turning in their graves.
Posted 08/17/2024 01:07 AM
Gary Clendennen:
This poem takes me back to around 1950, when my mother knew it. Suffern was near my family's homes before I was born: Newark, Poet Jervis, and Middletown. I thought of it recently, and looked it up. Thanks.
Posted 11/07/2023 12:37 PM
JudithViirgina:
Too bad that he passed so young! When I was younger I could not pass a large TREE without reciting his poem Tree!! Now, I read this poem about an empty house that seems not to have a soul and can only look back at my own life and still wish I could go back to my grandmothers home in Riverview, Florida. I remember the love and care that was always there for her grandchildren. It has long been torn down! But the winds of the Pines are still there and her soul still lingers. Judith Gullett
Posted 12/13/2022 08:03 PM
Wilda Morris:
Beautiful poem. It is interesting that the penultimate stanza has an extra line - probably the critique groups I'm in would suggest combining and shortening the first two lines. But it works well this way, drawing attention to the line, "A house that's done what a house should do." Very effective poem. I have the same feeling about barns that are falling down.
Posted 12/02/2014 09:17 AM
paradea:
If I had lots of money, I'd be just like Joyce Kilmer. What a heartbreakingly beautiful poem.
Posted 12/02/2014 07:52 AM
phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
Ahh, Kilmer! The question of houses and souls aside, the Ogden Nash-esque rhyme takes its place in the pantheon once more.
Posted 12/02/2014 06:11 AM
rhonasheridan:
I loved this poem. I always feel that houses have souls. Something invariably left by a past inhabitant.
Posted 11/30/2014 01:41 AM


Contents of this web site and all original text and images therein are copyright © by Your Daily Poem. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchasing books through any poet's Amazon links helps to support Your Daily Poem.
The material on this site may not be copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed, transmitted, stored, altered, adapted,
or otherwise used in any way without the express written permission of the owner.