Bob's Byway

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

1869 - 1935




THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

* This poem provides an example of a villanelle.
They are all gone away,
    The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray
    The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.

Nor is there one to-day
    To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray
    Around that sunken sill?
They are all gone away,

And our poor fancy-play
    For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay
To Villanelle in the Glossary
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    In the House on the Hill:
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.