Sound and Sense -Poem 206

The narrator here seems to be an omnipotent being, describing a particular house on a bad night. The rhyme scheme happens to be an ABAB iambic poem. Now although the narrator does not have much of an impact on the poem itself, in its being omnipotent it prevents any other form of narrator from affecting the tone of the poem. If another person were to be telling it, it would have a much different effect on the reader. A caretaker or traveler could easily make this a horror poem, which it of course is not meant to be. The meter, though, helps develop a rhythm that makes the poem not as much of a horror story as a depiction of the haunted house and its former "tenants." This is not trying to tell any specific story as much as it is trying to describe the house and the fears sometimes brought up by a storm. Obviously, the dead are not roaming the halls, but the storm is frightening other people inside. The rhythm and rhyme help to make the poem lyrical, and relieves some of the pure fright from the scene. Rather than an eyewitness's account in random, free verse terror, the omnipotent speaker allows for a neutral description of the setting.

The particular imagery in the poem helps give us a better idea of the house and its inhabitants. The poem details how the storm is powerful enough to make the house shake as if it were "smitten as with a flail" (line 3). The phantoms are described as "Old terrors...Creep[ing] from their caves to life again" (7-8), and "the packed Pollution of remorse and time, Slipped from oblivion" (13-15). The imagery helps to give an idea of both how bad the storm is and how terrified the residents become. Another useful technique is the use of alliteration, assonance, and consonance. Phrases like "guardian grasp on blood and brain" (6), "assert their squalid lease of sin" (11) help to establish further the flowing quality of the poem. It is orderly, lyrical, and not necessarily meant to evoke mass fear. The use of these techniques help to stress the focus is not on phantoms and the undead but on the fears of the residents.

To me, the poem seems to convey a common pain-in-the-neck. Sounds in the dark often frighten people, primarily because you don't know what made the sound. If you've inherited a creaky old house, chances are it has a long and likely not-too-favorable history. All the ghost stories you've ever heard, and all the rumors about the house, all come to life in your mind. Being half asleep, one can easily think they've seen a ghost or heard some piercing scream. I know personally that when you're just drifting off you might think you see or hear something, I've had that happen before, but at that point, at least I wake up and know that it's nothing. In the middle of a storm, though, there's always going to be creaking and whistling, and then it's bound to get creepy to some degree or another. And as the poem states, we can't believe there's nothing there until there is calmness or light. Of course, you're exhausted by then, but what else can you do about your own mind?