The Strange House

"I hear the piano playing     Just as a ghost might play."     " O, but what are you saying?     There's no piano to-day;     Their old one was sold and broken;     Years past it went amiss."     " I heard it, or shouldn't have spoken:     A strange house, this!     "I catch some undertone here,     From some one out of sight."     " Impossible; we are alone here,     And shall be through the night."     " The parlour-door what stirred it?"     " No one: no soul's in range."     " But, anyhow, I heard it,     And it seems strange!     "Seek my own room I cannot     A figure is on the stair!"     " What figure? Nay, I scan not     Any one lingering there.     A bough outside is waving,     And that's its shade by the moon."     " Well, all is strange! I am craving     Strength to leave soon."     " Ah, maybe you've some vision     Of showings beyond our sphere;     Some sight, sense, intuition     Of what once happened here?     The house is old; they've hinted     It once held two love-thralls,     And they may have imprinted     Their dreams on its walls?     "They were I think 'twas told me     Queer in their works and ways;     The teller would often hold me     With weird tales of those days.     Some folk can not abide here,     But we we do not care     Who loved, laughed, wept, or died here,     Knew joy, or despair."