Spirits in Bondage

by C.S. Lewis

XXIII. Alexandrines

There is a house that most of all on earth I hate.
     Though I have passed through many sorrows and have been
     In bloody fields, sad seas, and countries desolate,
     Yet most I fear that empty house where the grasses green
     Grow in the silent court the gaping flags between,
     And down the moss-grown paths and terrace no man treads
     Where the old, old weeds rise deep on the waste garden beds.
     Like eyes of one long dead the empty windows stare
     And I fear to cross the garden, I fear to linger there,
     For in that house I know a little, silent room
     Where Someone's always waiting, waiting in the gloom
     To draw me with an evil eye, and hold me fast—
     Yet thither doom will drive me and He will win at last.