In This House, She Said, In This High Second Storey, In This Room Where We Sit, Above The Midnight Street, There Runs A Rivulet, Narrow But Very Rapid, Under The Still Floor And Your Unconscious Feet. The Lamp On The Table Made A Cone Of Light That Spread To The Base Of The Walls: Above Was In Gloom. I Heard Her Words With Surprise; Had I Worked Here So Long, And Never Divined That Secret Of The Room? "But How," I Asked, "Does The Water Climb So High?" "I Do Not Know," She Said, "But The Thing Is There; Pull Up The Boards While I Go And Fetch You A Rod." She Passed, And I Heard Her Creaking Descend The Stair. And I Rose And Rolled The Turkey Carpet Back From The Two Broad Boards By The North Wall She Had Named, And, Hearing Already The Crumple Of Water, I Knelt And Lifted The First Of Them Up; And The Water Gleamed, Bordered With Little Frosted Heaps Of Ice, And, As She Came Back With A Rod And Line That Swung, I Moved The Other Board; In The Yellow Light The Water Trickled Frostily, Slackly Along. I Took The Tackle, A Stiff Black Rubber Worm, That Stuck Out Its Pointed Tail From A Cumbrous Hook, "But There Can't Be Fishing In Water Like This," I Said. And She, With Weariness, "There Is No Ice There. Look." And I Stood There, Gazing Down At A Stream In Spate, Holding The Rod In My Undecided Hand... Till It All In A Moment Grew Smooth And Still And Clear, And Along Its Deep Bottom Of Slaty Grey Sand Three Scattered Little Trout, As Black As Tadpoles, Came Waggling Slowly Along The Glass-Dark Lake, And I Swung My Arm To Drop My Pointing Worm In, And Then I Stopped Again With A Little Shake. For I Heard The Thin Gnat-Like Voices Of The Trout My Body Felt Woolly And Sick And Astray And Cold, Crying With Mockery In Them: "You Are Not Allowed To Take Us, You Know, Under Ten Years Old." And The Room Swam, The Calm Woman And The Yellow Lamp, The Table, And The Dim-Glistering Walls, And The Floor, And The Stream Sank Away, And All Whirled Dizzily, And I Moaned, And The Pain At My Heart Grew More And More. And I Fainted Away, Utterly Miserable. Falling In A Place Where There Was Nothing To Pass, Knowing All Sorrows And The Mothers And Sisters Of Sorrows, And The Pain Of The Darkness Before Anything Ever Was.