39
Heavy with wealth, are baskets full of bladders.
The very walls there are so strangely made,
They answer those who talk; and not in syllables,
Or bits of words, like Echo in our woods,
But go the whole talk over, word for word,
With something else beside, that no one said.
The tressels, tables, bedsteads, curtains, lockers,
Chairs, and whatever furniture there is
In room or bed-room, all have tongues and speech,
And are for ever tattling. Idle babblings
Are always going about in shape of children:
And should a dumb man enter in that place,
The dumb would babble in his own despite.
And yet this evil is the least of all
That might assail thee. Thou mightest be arrested
In fearful transformation to a willow,
A beast, fire, water,—fire for ever sighing,
Water for ever weeping." Here he ceased:
The very walls there are so strangely made,
They answer those who talk; and not in syllables,
Or bits of words, like Echo in our woods,
But go the whole talk over, word for word,
With something else beside, that no one said.
The tressels, tables, bedsteads, curtains, lockers,
Chairs, and whatever furniture there is
In room or bed-room, all have tongues and speech,
And are for ever tattling. Idle babblings
Are always going about in shape of children:
And should a dumb man enter in that place,
The dumb would babble in his own despite.
And yet this evil is the least of all
That might assail thee. Thou mightest be arrested
In fearful transformation to a willow,
A beast, fire, water,—fire for ever sighing,
Water for ever weeping." Here he ceased:
