Thomas Hardy - The Strange House lyrics

“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.”