Poetry · Chapter
The Haunted House explained
The poem depicts a haunted house and the psychological terror of a speaker who senses an impending, horrific event.
What happens
The poem depicts a haunted house and the psychological terror of a speaker who senses an impending, horrific event. The moon and trees are personified as witnesses to an unspeakable crime. The speaker calls upon winds, a sad woman, a child, a father, and a mother for help, and ultimately appeals to God for sorrow and relief. The house itself is portrayed as a living corpse, and the speaker struggles with guilt, memory, and the hope that love and divine grace can overcome despair.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Purification
The speaker's intense dread and the call for sorrow as a means of atonement reflect purification through suffering.
Redemption and Grace
The plea for 'pardon sweet' and 'water of life' and the hope that love will kill despair point to redemption and divine grace.
Spiritual Struggle and Doubt
The speaker's terror, questioning, and eventual turn to God illustrate a profound spiritual struggle.
Characters to notice
- God
The speaker appeals to God for sorrow and relief, acknowledging that the criminal lives by God's spirit.
- Love
Invoked as 'Love, the all-shining' that will kill Despair.
- Death
Referenced through imagery of the dead, the skeleton, and the funeral pall.
- The Wind
Called upon to sweep and blow away the ghastly house and phantom.
Key passages
“O God, he is but a living blot, Yet he lives by thee—for if thou wast not, They would vanish together, self-forgot, He and his crime:—one breathing blown From thy spirit on his would all atone, Scatter the horror, and bring relief In an amber dawn of holy grief! God, give him sorrow; arise from within, His primal being, deeper than sin!”
The speaker prays that God will grant the sinner sorrow and repentance, which will cleanse him from within and bring relief.
This passage encapsulates the theme of redemption through divine sorrow.
“God is in heaven—yes, everywhere, And Love, the all-shining, will kill Despair!”
The speaker reassures himself that God is omnipresent and that love will overcome despair.
A moment of hope and faith in the midst of terror.