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Poetry in Focus






The House on the Hill


By Edwin 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.






Rhyme Pattern

 1.

 

The final words in each line rhyme. Complete the rhyme patterns with the missing words from the poem.

away / say / gray / / day / say /

stray / away / play / say / / away / say

still / shrill / ill / sill / / Hill
Grammar in Context

 2.

 

Notice all but one of the verbs is a verb to be, is or are. What is the only action verb used in the poem?