The poetry " The House " is a work that reflects the poet's thoughts and feelings while

in the

attic while he may be staying in the attic for an extended period of time. Furthermore, the

poet's tone all through the poem is melancholy, emphasising the likely troubles that he was

suffering while his stay up there. The poet portrays this tone in lines 6-7, 11-15, and 23-25 to

convey his sentiments, internal thoughts that make him feel confined in that house's attic.

The poet is acutely aware of his existing situation. This has induced terror in him, and he is

aware that he has been sitting there for "three stifling hours." In the opening paragraph, the

poet presumably describes his residence, suggesting the poet's current state in this cold

environment. In the first line of the poem, the poet expresses tiredness, perspiration, and

mortality by saying, "I lie across the rafters of the loft," meaning that he has already spent

too much time fighting this inanimate thing. This results in a climate of frustration,

mortality, and anguish. To counterbalance this mood, the poet chooses words with

repeated 'o' syllables such as "loft," "box," "torch," and "sackcloth" as a technique to soothe

the reader, slow down his pace, keep him interested, and establish a feeling of purpose. He

also realises that, owing to his current state, he is likely to be outlasted by his house when

he says, "Myself against its fifty years," underlining the loneliness that he is experiencing all

alone in the house. The poem expresses loneliness in the lines, "Of the house offers no clue"

and "I must establish my own Permanence." The poet used imagery as a figure of speech to

highlight the "torchbeam's yellow cylinder" as a metaphor of warmth and a ray of hope to

shed light on his dread. The poet's misery in the House is highlighted from the first

paragraph itself when he mentions the line, "Wires twist into darkness, a crumbling Skein*

of red and black under sackcloth Of webs," which indicates the darkness and cold that has

trapped him in that house and with the use of onomatopoeia, how the red colour is a sign of
danger and presumably when he dies in this House, his friends and family members will

wear all black dress to pledge their allegiance.

The terms "frustrated," "silence," and "clue" emphasise the terror of being alone in the

House. The poet uses these phrases to emphasise that he is alone in this slumber of cold

and heat, and that he cannot be saved at the end. This has heightened his feelings of dread

and loneliness, and he desires to leave that spot as quickly as possible. Furthermore, the

poet attempts to re-establish the reality that he is alone and that even the house in which

he lives will outlast him. The terms "redbrick Terrace" and "solid rooms and gables"

demonstrate how the House has already etched its permeance and how the poet must have

fight tirelessly to defy its permeance. The term "permeance" is significant because it informs

us that the poet has to strengthen his presence in the House and sets the backdrop for the

above postulation. The poet employs the term "Warfare," which refers to engagement in

war-related activities. We may argue that the poet is now at odds with the House, which is

about to outlive him in this poem. The poet believes that the light from the torch will help

him to make his way through the attic of the House and hopefully out of the suffocating

heat off it, much as how torch lights are used to guide them their way in combat. The

statement, "Yet crouched in this Hot attic room, my sweat has turned to ice," tells us that,

just as time is frigid in combat, every minute spent by the poet in the attic is freezing.

Therefore, the poet accentuates the contrasts between animate and inanimate objects, as

well as how human mortality may cause them to suffer rather than live. The poet keeps us

involved in the poem by using imagery, dictation, and creative settings to convey the
shallowness of himself and us, as well as how our insecurities take control of us, much like

the poet's fear and the effect that the House had on him while he was there.