Haunted Houses
-H. W Longfellow
Keywords:
• Phantoms/ghosts
• Spirits
• Poltergeists
• Solace/ peace
• Gentle
• Harmless
• memories
• Errands
• Impalpable
• Thronged
• Illuminated
• Inoffensive
• Unsolicited/ Uninvited guests
• Title Deeds
• Mortmain
• Occupants
• Equipoise/Balance
• Instinct
• Dreams/wishes
• aspirations
• Perturbations/ Mental Disturbances
• Perpetual
• Undiscovered
• Trembling
• Wafts/glides
• Bridge
• Moonlight
• Realm
• Abyss
• Ethereal
• Intangible Entities
• Mystery/ Mysterious
MAIN POINT OF THE POEM
The poem "Haunted Houses" of H.W. Longfellow is a consoling and
sentimental meditation on the transience of the material and the
permanence of the spiritual. In other words, every living beings who exist in
the materialistic world are just temporary. When they die, their spirits go to
another world. The spirits don't die anymore, they are permanent. The way
the poet talks about the presence of the spirits in the houses, also shows
that the poet wants to convey us that our loved ones always remain with us,
in our thoughts and memories. Their presence doesn't decline even long
after they are gone from this physical plane.
About The Poem
The poem "Haunted Houses" by H.W. Longfellow is a very captivating poem
which deals with the connection between the spiritual world of ghosts and
the present world of the living creatures. This is a poem of spirits and
ghosts. Maybe through this poem the poet tried to convey that the ghosts
who linger in the haunted houses symbolize the lives of those who had lived
and their spirits remained for some reason or the other, maybe as reminders
of our past. The poem speaks about the "the bridge of light" that descends in
order to connect to our living world. The spirits of H.W Longfellow's poems
are the souls who linger in our memories and therefore, in our houses who
are neither mischievous poltergeists nor angry spirits intending to harm the
people-living in the present world.
Literary Devices:
The poet has used a number of poetic devices to bring home his view of
Haunted Houses. They are the following:
Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between different persons and objects. The examples of metaphor in the
poem are:
• this perpetual jar/Of earthly wants and aspirations high
• And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud/Throws o'er the sea a
floating bridge of light.
Simile: It is a figure of speech in which comparison between two different
things is explicitly stated using the words 'as' or 'like'. The examples of
simile in the poem are:
As silent as the pictures on the wall.
Floats like an atmosphere.
Personification: It is a figure of speech in which human qualities are
attributed to both inanimate and abstract ideas. The examples of
personification in the poem are:
• From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands.
• ...this perpetual jar/Of earthly wants and aspirations high
• And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud/Throws o'er the sea a
floating bridge of light.
• Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.
Alliteration: It is the close repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the
beginning of words. The examples of alliteration in the poem are:
Are haunted houses [h sound)
• A sense of something moving to and fro. (s sound)
From graves forgotten (f sound]
Our little Lives [l sound]
Stanza Wise Explanation:
Stanza 1:
H.W. Longfellow the poet, of the poem "Haunted Houses" describes the
presence of the phantoms in the houses. They are the souls and spirits who
were living beings once but after their death, they have become spirits now.
So the poet says that all the houses wherein men have lived and died are
haunted houses. They are not poltergeists. They are described as harmless
ghosts who came through the open doors with soundless feet upon the
floors and are busy with their regular errands. Longfellow's ghosts are very
different from the ghouls and ghosts of popular imagination. They are
neither unhappy nor harmful and they neither groan nor clank.
Stanza2:
The ghosts or the spirits are found on the stair, at the door-ways, in the
table and everywhere in the houses. They wander along the passages of the
house with impalpable impressions on the air. They are unnoticeable but
their presence can be felt. A sense of something moving to and fro can be
felt. So these ghosts can be said to be domesticated ghosts who are found in
the houses.
Stanza 3
The speaker says that there are more guests than the hosts. The illuminated
hall is filled up with quiet and inoffensive ghosts and they are silent as
pictures on the wall. Here the speaker refers the guests invited to the ghosts
or the spirits which are more in number than the living beings alive in the
house (that are the hosts.) They are so silent that they are compared to the
pictures on the wall whose presence is not detected because they make no
sound.
Stanza 4
In these lines the speaker says how the stranger sitting at the fireside is
unable to see or hear the ghosts but the forms which the speaker himself
can see or hear. Here 'forms' means the ghosts or the spirits. The stranger
only perceives what is in front of him. The ghosts are clearly visible only to
the speaker. From this we can derive that either the speaker is a ghost
himself or his memory is haunted by the thoughts of these spirits, who are
actually the spirits of his family members and loved ones.
Stanza 5
Here the speaker says that they have no title deeds to houses or lands. The
actual or original owners or occupants of these houses were alive but are
now dead and are in graves whom no one in the earth has remembered as
everyone is engaged in work. These actual owners or occupants still have a
connection with their possessions.
So in spite of being ghosts or spirits now, they stretch out their hands to
hold in "mortmain" of their old estates with which they are still connected to.
Stanza 6
In this stanza the speaker speaks of the world of the supernatural or the
spirit world which surrounds our world of material or the world of living.
They are everywhere in the world of living and encircle us like the pall of
atmosphere. The earth's atmosphere is made up of mists and vapors. The
spirits waft through the dense mists and vapors like a vital breath. Since
they are unearthly and belong to ethereal air they waft through the dense
mists and vapors in the atmosphere.
Stanza 7
In this stanza, the poet says that our lives are always kept in a balance of
force by opposite attractions and desires. This is the law or nature of the
humans to get attracted towards various desires. The people who have the
instincts to struggle, enjoy lives and those people with noble instincts can
aspire high or in other words people who have an instinct to struggle, a
willingness to live life as it comes, they enjoy the struggle as well as the life.
People with noble instincts rise high in their lives.
Stanza 8
The poet has described the anxieties, worries, aspirations, desires which are
all unending-to a perpetual jar. The wants and high aspirations of the
people of the earth are perpetual. They don't end so they are like a perpetual
or unending jar. These earthly wants and high aspirations come from the
influence of maybe a star which is yet unseen or a planet which has not
been discovered yet.
Stanza 9
The speaker connects the two worlds-the world of the spirits and the world
of the living through a "bridge of light". He has given a very beautiful
description of how the bridge is made. He says that as the moon comes out
from some dark gate of clouds, it throws its beams or light over the water of
the sea, thus making a floating bridge of light. All our fancies-thoughts,
desires, aspirations etc crowd along the "bridge of light." These fancies travel
across the "trembling planks" of the bridge into the kingdom of mystery and
night. The planks are described as trembling because this bridge is made by
the moonlight on the water. So through this bridge our fancies travel into
the world of spirits.
Stanza 10
The poet here says that the bridge of light descends from the world of spirit
to the world of living or earth. This bridge connects the two worlds. The
unsteady floor of this bridge sways and bends because the moonlight falling
on the waves of the water, ripples and shakes. Our thoughts, memories and
aspirations are connected with the spirits of the loved ones who are dead
long before. All these rise above the dark cave of this materialistic world,
and go into the world of spirits.
Prepared by,
Ms Asmita
