Solitude by Harold Munro
b'Munro read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\nSolitude\\n by Harold Munro (1879 \\u2013 1932) \\n\\nWhen you have tidied all things for the night, \\nAnd while your thoughts are fading to their sleep, \\nYou\'ll pause a moment in the late firelight, \\nToo sorrowful to weep. \\n\\nThe large and gentle furniture has stood \\nIn sympathetic silence all the day \\nWith that old kindness of domestic wood; \\nNevertheless the haunted room will say: \\n"Someone must be away." \\n\\nThe little dog rolls over half awake, \\nStretches his paws, yawns, looking up at you, \\nWags his tail very slightly for your sake, \\nThat you may feel he is unhappy too. \\n\\nA distant engine whistles, or the floor \\nCreaks, or the wandering night-wind bangs a door \\n\\nSilence is scattered like a broken glass. \\nThe minutes prick their ears and run about, \\nThen one by one subside again and pass \\nSedately in, monotonously out. \\n\\nYou bend your head and wipe away a tear. \\nSolitude walks one heavy step more near.'