The Dark House by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The speaker describes a “Dark House” inhabited by a Demon whose eyes and arms irresistibly ensnare those who enter her influence. Inside, a lamp burns like one in a tomb, and the speaker sees a friend pacing in shadow, unable to find his way outside. The friend believes himself damned and defeated since a door closed upon his former life, while the speaker recognizes that ordinary words cannot reach him. Yet the speaker believes in a deeper, unheard music that can soothe and redeem where reason and dreams fail. If the trapped friend remains still with the Demon, faint murmurs of this music may reach him; then singing life will find him, the door will open, and he will return to life outside, transformed by what has seemed like death.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1897 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Psychological Poetry, Gothic Poetry · 398 words
First lines
WHERE a faint light shines alone, / Dwells a Demon I have known.
Most of you had better say
What this Textopian page supports
The Dark House is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1897 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1897 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Psychological Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Symbolist Poetry, Narrative Poetry
- Length: 398 words
- Structure: 1 section, 33 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Dark House by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a compact, highly musical poem centered on subjective feeling, symbolic imagery, and a speaker's intimate meditation on suffering and possible renewal.
- Psychological Poetry — Its central drama concerns inner imprisonment, obsession, despair, alienation, and the friend's inability to escape a destructive emotional condition.
- Gothic Poetry — The isolated faint light, tomb-like room, gliding shadow, ominous closed door, and demonic figure create a distinctly dark, haunted, Gothic atmosphere.
- Symbolist Poetry — The house, demon, lamp, door, music, shadow, and web operate as layered symbols rather than merely literal narrative details, suggesting spiritual and psychological states.
Tags
poetry · American literature · modernist poetry · psychological introspection · mortality · isolation · melancholy · existentialism · darkness · inner conflict · spiritual struggle · grief