Poem Response 14

The House on the Hill

Edward Arlington Robinson

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 the 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

   In the House on the Hill:

 They are all gone away,

 There is nothing more to say.

Found at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/8478321-The_House_on_the_Hill-by-Edwin_Arlington_Robinson

Something about houses that have been left alone are so intriguing. They once contained something that is gone forever now, and in its place, “There is ruin and decay, In the House on the Hill, They are all gone away, There is nothing more to say”

Villanelle poems are sometimes really difficult to write. This one was really done beautifully. (The format of a Villanelle poem is made up of 19 lines, with two repeating refrains and a unique rhyming pattern. Here is the pattern: 

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 2 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 4 (a)

Line 5 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 7 (a)

Line 8 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 10 (a)

Line 11 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 13 (a)

Line 14 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 16 (a)

Line 17 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Refrain 2 (A²))