# House and Man explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Edward Thomas.

## What happens

The speaker recalls a man and his isolated house, which stands alone in the forest. The man's presence is ghost-like and weary, and the memory is triggered by the sight of a magpie veering in doubt.

## Themes in this chapter

### Place and Belonging

The house is isolated in the forest, and the man's relationship with it is one of lonely belonging.

### Memory and Time

The speaker recalls the man and house from the past, triggered by a present sight.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who remembers the man and his house, observing from the gate.

### Old Jack Noman

The man living in the lonely house, described as ghost-like and weary.

## Key lines

> One hour: as dim he and his house now look As a reflection in a rippling brook, While I remember him; but first, his house.

The man and his house appear as faded as a reflection in a disturbed stream, as the speaker recalls them.

_Opens the poem with a memory of the man and his dwelling._

> He seemed to hang rather than stand there, half Ghost-like, half like a beggar’s rag, clean wrung And useless on the brier where it has hung Long years a-washing by sun and wind and rain.

He appeared to be suspended, part spectral, part like a tattered cloth left to weather on a thorn bush.

_Describes the man's worn and ghostly appearance._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters/house-and-man
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters