“Haunted Houses” is a poem written by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. In the poem all the men who lived in their houses and died there have been living in haunted houses, and in those houses, phantoms roam about carrying on their business. These men feel the ghosts at different places in the house but to them, it just feels as if something is moving in the air. When there are parties the number of guests is more than originally invited because the uninvited ghosts are ghosts as silent as the paintings on the walls. The people sitting by the fireside cannot see them but the poet can.
The spiritual plane around people as conceived by them is just ear the physical world and through it, little wisps of ethereal spirit air breeze through. The lives of human beings are usually kept in balance as they juggle desires and ethics in their daily life. They struggle against their instincts and acceding to the poet these pleasures and needs come to humans because there are still so many undiscovered stars and plants out there. Further on the moon throws light over the sea as our fancies cross into the mystery of the night. And on this, there comes a streak of light from the metaphysical world where the thoughts of people wander endlessly.
The poem is unique in its context as it deals with ghosts and spirits. It is surprising to know, however, they are not depicted as loathsome creatures instead they are harmless and mind their own business. The poem seems to itself blend seamlessly into the other world as Longfellow weaves it through rhyming lines laced with multiple figures of speech giving it a comforting feeling as if we are reading a sleeping lullaby.
Haunted Houses | Summary and Analysis
The most striking feature of this poem is, surprisingly, its familiarity as if you probably have read it many times before. This is due to the way the poem has been written. Longfellow used a repeating rhyme scheme of ABAB in all the stanzas along with constant alliteration which makes the poem very easy to read. This is one of the features of Fireside Poets – a group of American poets who were able to achieve recognition on the same level as their counterparts. Longfellow’s poetry is particularly known to be simple and is accessible to such an extent that it is read by people of every class and status.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 1
All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.
By reading the first stanza one gets a clear picture of the theme presented by Longfellow. He is trying to talk about ghosts but in a good way. According to him any house in which men have lived and died are “haunted houses” and in them live spirits who come and go out without making any sound. The stanza contains alliteration in the sounds of “h,” “e,” and “o” which give it a very simple and sing-song rhyme. The first stanza is simple enough to understand and conventional in its form and does not use any new form of poetry.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 2
We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.
The second stanza explains the behavior of these ghosts and the way they move around. Longfellow claims that we meet them on stairways, the door and they come along the same path we use. However, to us, they just seem like “impalpable impressions in the air” as if the air is blowing strongly. By describing their movements the poet is trying to convince his readers that even though we do not see them, still they are always around us doing their work. In this way, the concept of ghosts seems a less scary thought. Once again by using assonance in sounds like “o,” “e,” and “a” followed by a strict rhyme scheme the stanza becomes very easy to read.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 3
There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
As silent as the pictures on the wall.
This stanza contains the figure of speech called simile where something is likened to another thing using words like or as. Here the ghosts have been compared to paintings on the wall, by saying “as silent as the pictures on the walls”. Longfellow is showing us that ghosts are silent beings unlike popular ideology related to ghosts. He says that at parties the number of guests is more than what the “host” invites. That is because the uninvited guests happen to be the “inoffensive ghosts” who are so quiet that one does not notice their presence at all just like the paintings mounted in rooms.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 4
The stranger at my fireside cannot see
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but perceives what is; while unto me
All that has been is visible and clear.
In the fourth stanza, the poet addresses a man, who is not confirmed to be present there, and describes how that person cannot see the spirits. Longfellow used the technique of addressing the man as a way of showing the differences in the ability of the poet in being able to see the ghosts. While the poet can see their “forms” and hear their “sounds” the stranger next to him can only “perceive” them. This is because humans cannot see ghosts but it seems like the poet has the skill to do so. The stanza also contains perfect rhyme which matches the ABAB rhyme scheme of the poem giving it a relaxed form.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 5
We have no title-deeds to house or lands;
Owners and occupants of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old estates.
The poet seems to be talking from the point of view of the ghosts in this stanza. He says that “we”, that is the spirits of people who have passed on, do not own any “houses” or “title deeds”. He describes them using imagery in the following lines “From graves forgotten to stretch their dusty hands” and these hands are holding the “mortmain” that used to belong to their estates. In this way the poets express their true nature by showing that the houses they once owned have now been taken from them, they no longer own it even though they might have had the estate papers in their “dusty” hands. Here Longfellow has introduced the concept of materialism and how it does not affect ghosts as they have already owned and moved away from their properties. This shows that ghosts have no worldly desires and are content with the way things are.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 6
The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapoursdense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.
This is one of the most important stanzas of the poem as the poet interlinks the spiritual world with the physical one. He claims that the world of ghosts “floats like an atmosphere” and through it, a “vital breath of more ethereal air” comes out in the mists and vapors of the earth. The speaker is suggesting that the spiritual plane and the material plane are more closely tied together than one knows. It is always present around the world and just flows on as if it is the air. Similarly, the earth has mists and vapors of many different kinds and it is through this that the ghosts and phantoms find a way to slip into a human dimension. Longfellow used visual imagery to give us a picture of the way the ghosts penetrate amidst human beings, it feels as if there is a veil of air and it is being lifted partially to let small breezes; in that breezes being supernatural beings.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 7
Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires.
As opposed to the previous stanza this one is from the point of view of humans as Longfellow tells about human nature. He says that “our lives” is kept in constant strife between “desires” and attractions”. Humans constantly try to fight their instincts as they try to achieve great deeds while fighting their primal nature. By highlighting the characteristics, the poet here is trying to show ghosts in a better view. Humans tend to give in to temptation but spirits have no reason or interest to.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 8
These perturbations, this perpetual jar
Of earthly wants and aspirations high,
Come from the influence of an unseen star
An undiscovered planet in our sky.
Longfellow further goes on to give the reasons humans have such demands in their lives. He compares their greed to a “perpetual jar” full of earthly pleasures and fame. The reason he gives for such wants is that it is the influence of an unexplored star and planets which only increase their curiosity. He blames the vast universe for such temptations. Again the use of alliteration has been constant throughout the stanzas not to mention the rhyme scheme as well. The complete rhymes also add emphasis on the ideas expressed by the poet as he gives his reasons for his defense against ghosts.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 9
And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud
Throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light,
Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd
Into the realm of mystery and night,—
The stanza uses explicit imagery to infuse the element of mystery into normal perceptions of night. Longfellow says that the moon “throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light”; here he has used excellent imagery to show the moon shining over the sea and creating a bridge of light that joins our imaginations onto the depths of night. This could also be a way of showing the process in which the spiritual realms connect with the human one. The moon has been seen as an object of mystery and by using it in his poem Longfellow increases the mystification of the night as demonstrated in the following stanza by applying enjambment.
Haunted Houses Analysis Stanza 10
So from the world of spirits there descends
A bridge of light, connecting it with this,
O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.
In the last stanza of the poem the poet says that on this bridge of light, the world of spirits connects and this is where our thoughts wander in the dismal abyss. Here Longfellow personifies the bridge as an “unsteady floor” that “sways and bends”. The poet has connected the virtual world of thoughts and feeling present in our minds along with the world of spirits. Perhaps this is so because he wants to show that spirits are nothing but our imagination and as such harbor no harm. This stanza can be called an example of metaphysical poetry where imagination is connected to the supernatural world which is done most naturally. This in turn the poem into a more complex idea, more so than its form which is quite ordinary.
The speaker in the poem has created a sombre and reflective atmosphere. Though the tone of the poem is plain and simple, its expressions increase a person’s inquisitiveness which makes the poem far more sophisticated than it looks. Longfellow, despite not using many figures of speech manages to deliver a poem that reflects on the supernatural as being harmless and perhaps a portal to vast canyons of darkness.
Haunted Houses | About the Author
Henry Wordsworth Longfellow was an American poet who was one of the Fireside poets. His poetry is known for its musical tone along with themes that evoke emotions. He was known for writing along the styles of his British rival however he never used experimentation in his poetry.
