Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I’ve passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for
a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in
it.
I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there
are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn’t haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn’t be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.
This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen
panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed
and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.
If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I’d put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I’d buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I’d find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.
Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window
and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the
store.
But there’s nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.
But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby’s laugh and held up his stumbling
feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it’s left alone, that ever your eyes
could meet.
So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen
apart,
For I can’t help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken
heart.
The House with Nobody in It
Analysis, meaning and summary of Joyce Kilmer's poem The House with Nobody in It
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MY MOM(NELLIE RAY)RECITED THIS POEM AS A YOUNG GIRL IN
SCHOOL IN NEEDVILLE,TX. SHE WON THE CONTEST. I HEARD HER RECITE THIS POEM IN HER LATE 70’S AND SHE REMEMBERED IT ALL. SHE PASSED AWAY IN MAY”05, AND THE HOME SHE LIVED IN, NOW HAS NOBODY IN IT. I WISH I HAD RECITED THIS POEM AT HER FUNERAL BECAUSE SHE LOVED IT!!!!
I used to recite in plays and contests in school and this is one of my prize poems. I’ve always loved it and include this in poems I give as gifts. It’s so sad to think of this house that did it’s job and now is alone and so true to life, Isn’t it?
I heard this poem for the very first time last night. It was recited by a woman who is 87 years old. My grandparents lived in Suffern, and as a child we would walk the country roads after dinner in the summer,
when the light was long and lingered. We would cross a wooden bridge that spanned that Erie track and there was, indeed, an old abandoned farm house that we kids would call ‘haunted’….I wonder if it was the same house…….
I remember having to recite this poem in elementary school and now 40 years later my interpretation of the poem is much different from elementary school. I know someone who had a house and never rented it out or allowed anyone to live in it. I passed by this house everyday for 15 years and would always think about the poem “The House with Nobody in It”. I felt exactly the way Kilmer may have felt. I used the analogy that like this house, life is to be lived and not wasted; don’t have a “body and mind” and leave it idle; utilize your god given talents or they will become like the house on Suffern.(Tragic)
I am doing a reserch project and I can’t find any literary criticism and I don’t really know what the poem means so if any body has any idea please explain and post thanks
I too have loved this poem ever since I heard it in grammar school I always felt sad for the house.The house is longing for a family to live in it again. It remembers the days when there was love and laughter echoing from it’s walls
I’ve loved this poem since elementary school, when I was required to memorize it for english class. I lived in southwestern Connecticut and went through Suffern, NY years later looking for the house!! The memory of the words gripped me as much as my other favorite, “The Barefoot Boy” by John Greenleaf Whittier. To me it means we should always look back, and of course, try to make things better.
My grandma is now 85 and some dementia has set in, but of all the things that she remembers is this poem. She can recite it when everything else is upside down. This is what I will read at her funeral as she has told it to me so many times.
My Mum read poetry to us almost every night, from what I think is the same red book. I always loved this one, and still had most of it memorized until just recently. (I’m getting old, ok?) My imagination took me to that house time and time again, and the house looked sad, lonely. It imparts the idea that places are still alive when it is clear that something good and decent took place.
I still have the same love for some special places and things that made a difference in my life. I feel lucky to have had a mum who knew a lot about literature, and by reading to us, we all learned to read well before kindergarten. I think it’s early brain-training.
As kids in Brooklyn, NY, roller-skating on the slate sidewalks, or sitting on the stoops, we recited snatches of the poem. The haunting refrain of the sad house with nobody in it left us petrified of ghosts. But, what always mystified me–and why I liked this poem above many others–was Kilmer’s lonely and metaphysical walk along the Erie railroad tracks. Why did he want to walk to Suffern, NY from his home in New Jersey? That question has never been answered to my satisfaction. It is a rhetorical question, so please don’t delete this comment. Joyce Kilmer should be recognized as, and given the honorable title of, America’s poet laureate.
I support this poem to the deep bottom. I mean I am just as lonely, well yea..I can’t be as lonely..there are human beings around me..but I feel I am as lonely as it. Its a house, in this world a house deserves better than anyone.
I remember this poem in a red book when I was a child. I just loved it and made my sister read it to me over and over again. I memorized the first stanza and by the time I could read it myself the book was no where to be found…. I finally have the entire poem … it has stuck with me all these years. I plan to read it to all of my grandchildren.
I think this poem is very nice. It taught me that we need to show solidarity to to other people that don`t have. I am going to say this poem to my class in english class on monday. I hope my class enjoys it! I really enjoyed this poem.
My older brother, above all else, was a career soldier in the U.S. Army. He gave this poem to me one evening after we had not seen each other for a number of years, and as we shared a drink as an older and a younger adult, trying to get to know each other again. As I read it for the first time, my eyes welled up with emotion, and he said, “I just wanted to see what kind of man you have become. I see everything I need to know.” I have been looking for this poem for over 20 years. Thank you.
I was a 14 year old boy when I memorized this poem in the eighth grade for English Literature class. I remember practicing reciting it at home, before presenting it to the class. I loved it the first time I read it and have never forgotten it. I am now 57 years old.
How sad that our lives should become as old houses ~ but there is hope yet! Too often we leave things behind without the realization of their importance in our lives ~ “to look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it” ~
I learned this poem in grammar school many years ago and recently interpreted it for my college Oral Interpretation class. Analyzing it, I realized that Kilmer was telling us all to look back at those who are abandoned and who have broken hearts and fix them up. At least, that’s what it says to me. He was a remarkable man and he died with so many poems unwritten. Our loss!
My thanks to you. My sister and I also learned this poem in elemetary school. Unfortunately, time erased a couple of the verses and it has been driving us mad. We were both touched by Joyce Kilmer’s words and the picture they imprinted in our minds. We wanted to share it with our next generation. I am elated to find it printed in full – it is going to make an excellent Christmas gift. Thank you again!
Stirs deep emotions not only for the deserted, rundown house, but for the person who memorized this when he was 14 and won State recognition during state competition – he died of cancer before he graduated from H.S., his mother’s only son whom she adored. So sad for mom and the old house.
I learned this poem in the sixth grade, and since that date, I have never passed a similar site without feeling saddness at the plight of a house with nobody in it. I wish students today, instead of the endless preparation for testing, would be exposed to the beauty and depth of our nation’s poetry.