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Lyric Poem · Love

In Memoriam 7: Dark house, by which once more I stand

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Dark house, by which once more I stand

Here in the long unlovely street,

Doors, where my heart was used to beat

So quickly, waiting for a hand,

A hand that can be clasp'd no more —

Behold me, for I cannot sleep,

And like a guilty thing I creep

At earliest morning to the door.

He is not here; but far away

The noise of life begins again,

And ghastly thro' the drizzling rain

On the bald street breaks the blank day.

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Quick facts

Poem
In Memoriam 7: Dark house, by which once more I stand
Poet
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Length
12 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Love, Dreams & Sleep

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
12 lines · one 12-line stanza
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892
Source record
PoetryDBIn Memoriam 7: Dark house, by which once more I stand by alfred-lord-tennyson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 fd9a1e4982cf33a2
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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