English LiteratureICSE Class 10 · Chapter 9

Haunted Houses ICSE Class 10: Explanation, Themes and Extract Questions

Updated 14 October 2026 · Fact-checked

Haunted Houses by H.W. Longfellow says that every house where people have lived and died is haunted by gentle memories of the past. The speaker sees these presences that a stranger cannot, and the poem ends by imagining a bridge of light between the world of spirits and our own. ICSE sets MCQs and 16-mark extracts on it.

What Haunted Houses is about

Haunted Houses by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the first of the five Class X poems listed for Treasure Chest in the syllabus. Despite its title, it is not a ghost story. Its 'phantoms' are harmless and silent: the memories and influence of all the people who lived and died in a house before us. The poem moves from houses to the whole world, suggesting that a spirit world surrounds our world of the senses, that our lives are balanced between earthly desires and higher aspirations, and that a bridge of light, like moonlight over the sea, connects the two worlds.

The poem is written in ten four-line stanzas with an abab rhyme scheme. The 2025 paper and the 2027 specimen asked what the speaker sees at his fireside that the stranger cannot (answer: both the present and the past). A 16-mark extract could ask about the phantoms, the 'title-deeds', the balance of instincts and the closing simile of the moonlit bridge.

Weightage: CISCE publishes no weightage by text. Section A has 16 one-mark MCQs (about 5 on the poems), and Section D offers two 16-mark poetry extract questions; at least one poetry question must be attempted.Source: CISCE ICSE 2027 Specimen Question Paper, Literature in English (T27 012)

Haunted Houses: explanation

In our own words, in the order of the text. Read the NCERT text itself too: the board quotes from it.

Stanzas 1-2: Every house is haunted. The poet declares that all houses in which people have lived and died are haunted. The 'phantoms' are harmless: they glide through the open doors on their errands without a sound. We meet them at the doorway and on the stairs; they are not visible bodies but faint impressions in the air, a sense of something moving to and fro.

Stanza 3: Uninvited guests. At a dinner party, there are more guests at the table than the hosts invited. The brightly lit hall is crowded with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, as silent as the pictures on the wall: the past is present among the living.

Stanza 4: The poet and the stranger. A stranger sitting at the poet's fireside cannot see or hear what the poet does. The stranger perceives only what is (the present); to the poet, all that has been (the past) is visible and clear. Memory and imagination let him see the people who lived there before.

Stanza 5: No real ownership. We have no true title-deeds to our houses or lands. Earlier owners and occupants stretch their dusty hands from forgotten graves and still hold their old estates, as if by a legal grip that the dead keep on property (mortmain). The past continues to possess what we think is ours.

Stanza 6: The spirit world. The world of spirits surrounds this world of the senses like an atmosphere. Through the thick mists of earthly life it sends a living breath of purer, more heavenly air.

Stanzas 7-8: The balance of our lives. Our small lives are kept in balance (equipoise) by opposite pulls: the instinct that enjoys earthly pleasures and the nobler instinct that aspires to higher things. This constant disturbance and conflict between earthly wants and high aspirations comes from the influence of an unseen star, an undiscovered planet in our sky, that is, from the spirit world.

Stanzas 9-10: The bridge of light. As the moon, coming out from behind a dark cloud, throws a floating bridge of light across the sea, over whose trembling planks our imaginations travel into the realm of mystery and night, so from the world of spirits a bridge of light descends, connecting it with ours. Across its unsteady, swaying floor our thoughts wander above the dark abyss. The poem ends with this image of connection between the seen and the unseen.

Themes and message

The presence of the past

Every home carries the memories of those who lived there. The 'ghosts' are the past's continuing influence on the present: in our houses, our possessions and our lives.

From the text: The harmless phantoms; the silent ghosts at table; the dusty hands of earlier owners.

Perception and imagination

The stranger sees only the present; the poet, with memory and imagination, sees the past too. The poem values a sensitive, imaginative way of seeing.

From the text: Stanza 4: the stranger at the fireside.

The impermanence of ownership

We think we own our houses and lands, but earlier owners still 'hold' them; we too will pass, leaving them to others. Ownership is temporary.

From the text: Stanza 5: 'title-deeds' and 'mortmain'.

The material and the spiritual

Human life is balanced between earthly desires and noble aspirations, and the spiritual world surrounds and influences the material one, linked to it by a bridge of light.

From the text: Stanzas 6-10.

The speaker and the people in the poem

The speaker (poet)

A reflective, imaginative observer of his own house and of life.

Sensitive to the past
Philosophical
Calm and unafraid of the 'ghosts'

He sees what the stranger cannot and reflects on the spirit world.

The stranger

A visitor at the poet's fireside.

Perceives only the present

Stanza 4.

Poetic devices

Device	Example	Effect
Paradox	Ghosts that are 'harmless' and 'inoffensive' in 'haunted houses'.	Overturns the reader's expectation of fear and reveals the poem's real subject: memory.
Simile	The ghosts are as silent as the pictures on the wall; the spirit world floats like an atmosphere.	Makes abstract ideas concrete and gentle.
Extended simile	As the moon throws a bridge of light over the sea, so the spirit world sends a bridge of light to ours.	Ends the poem with a beautiful image of connection between worlds.
Metaphor	The 'unseen star', the 'undiscovered planet' in our sky.	Suggests a hidden spiritual influence on human life.
Imagery (the dead hand)	Former owners stretch their dusty hands from forgotten graves.	Makes the past's hold on property vivid.
Rhyme scheme	abab in each quatrain.	Gives a calm, measured, reflective music.

Key quotations

Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.

All houses wherein men have lived and died / Are haunted houses.
The poet: The opening lines.
States the poem's central idea: the past lives on in every home.
He but perceives what is; while unto me / All that has been is visible and clear.
The poet: Stanza 4, about the stranger at his fireside.
Contrasts the stranger's view of the present with the poet's vision of the past.
Our little lives are kept in equipoise / By opposite attractions and desires;
The poet: Stanza 7.
Human life is a balance between earthly pleasure and noble aspiration.

Haunted Houses in real life

Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Memories in places

Suppose your family moves into a flat, and you find pencil marks on a door frame recording the heights of children who lived there before.

How does this connect with 'Haunted Houses'?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The marks are traces of past lives.
They make you imagine the children: a 'harmless phantom'.

Answer: The marks are Longfellow's 'phantoms': harmless signs that others lived, grew and left. Every home carries such traces of the past.

Memory hook: Height marks on a door frame: a friendly ghost.

Seeing more than the present

Imagine you take a friend to your old school. Your friend sees an ordinary building; you see the corridor where you won your first race and the classroom where you made your best friend.

Which stanza does this mirror?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The friend = the stranger, seeing what is.
You = the poet, seeing all that has been.

Answer: Stanza 4: the stranger perceives only the present, while the speaker sees the past as well.

Memory hook: The stranger sees a building; you see a story.

Balance between enjoyment and aspiration

Suppose you must choose each evening between a video game and practising the guitar for a competition.

How does Longfellow describe this kind of conflict?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Enjoying instinct: the game.
Aspiring instinct: practice.
Life is kept in balance by the pull of both.

Answer: It is the struggle of 'the instinct that enjoys' and 'the more noble instinct that aspires', which together keep our lives in equipoise.

Memory hook: Game versus guitar: equipoise every evening.

Topics in this chapter

Harmless Phantoms, the Poet and the Bridge of Light (Haunted Houses)

How the board asks Haunted Houses

The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.

Question type	How it is asked	Method
Section A MCQ (1 mark)	'What does the speaker see at his fireside that the stranger cannot?' (both the present and the past); meaning of a phrase; figure of speech.	Know each stanza's idea in one line; MCQ distractors swap who sees what.
Extract question (16 marks)	A stanza or two, with parts on meaning, words that show a quality, what follows, figures of speech and the overall message.	Quote the exact word when asked for 'words from the poem', then explain; for 'message' parts, connect the extract to the closing bridge image.
Figures of speech and rhyme	Identify the device in a line (simile, metaphor, personification, paradox) or the rhyme scheme, and explain its effect.	Name the device, quote the exact words, and explain what it adds (e.g. 'harmless phantoms' is a paradox that turns ghosts into memories).

Tricks to remember Haunted Houses

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

Ten stanzas in five steps
Houses (1-3) → Stranger (4) → Deeds (5) → Spirit air and balance (6-8) → Bridge of light (9-10).
Use it when: Placing any extract in the poem.
Harmless, inoffensive, silent
Three words that make the ghosts friendly.
Use it when: 'Pick words that show…' parts.

Haunted Houses: extract-based questions

Read the extract, answer every part on paper, then open the answers.

Extract 1: Stanza 1

All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

(1) · 3 marks · Short answer
(i) Why does the poet say all houses where men have lived and died are haunted? What are the 'phantoms'?
(2) · 3 marks · Short answer
(ii) Pick out two words in the stanza that show the phantoms are not frightening, and explain each.
(3) · 3 marks · Short answer
(iii) Where else, according to the next stanza, do we meet these presences, and how are they perceived?
(4) · 3 marks · Short answer
(iv) What does the speaker see at his fireside that the stranger cannot?
(5) · 4 marks · Long answer
(v) How does the poem end? Explain the comparison used, and say what it suggests about our relationship with the spirit world.

Show the answersAnswers

Because the memories and influence of everyone who lived and died there remain in them. The 'phantoms' are not frightening ghosts but these lingering presences of past inhabitants.
'harmless': they do no injury; 'glide' (or 'no sound'): they move gently and silently, without disturbing the living.
At the doorway, on the stair and along the passages. They are not seen as bodies but felt as faint impressions on the air, a sense of something moving to and fro.
The stranger perceives only what is, the present; the speaker sees both the present and the past: all that has been is visible and clear to him.
It ends with an extended simile: as the moon, emerging from a dark cloud, throws a floating bridge of light across the sea over which our fancies travel into mystery, so a bridge of light descends from the spirit world, connecting it with ours, and over its swaying floor our thoughts wander above the dark abyss. It suggests that the two worlds are connected, and that through thought and imagination we can reach towards the spiritual, though the bridge is unsteady.

Extract 2: Stanza 7

Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires.

(1) · 3 marks · Short answer
(i) What does 'equipoise' mean? What keeps our lives in equipoise?
(2) · 3 marks · Short answer
(ii) Why does the poet call our lives 'little'?
(3) · 3 marks · Short answer
(iii) According to the next stanza, where does this conflict come from?
(4) · 3 marks · Short answer
(iv) Give one example from everyday life of 'the instinct that enjoys' and 'the more noble instinct that aspires'.
(5) · 4 marks · Long answer
(v) How do stanzas 6-8 widen the poem's subject from houses to life itself? What is the poet's attitude to the spirit world?

Show the answersAnswers

Equipoise means a state of balance. Our lives are balanced by two opposite pulls: the instinct that enjoys worldly pleasures and the nobler instinct that aspires to higher, spiritual things.
Compared with the vast spirit world and the long line of those who lived before us, each human life is short and small.
From the influence of an unseen star, an undiscovered planet in our sky: the hidden influence of the spirit world on human life.
For example: the wish to spend an evening on games (enjoys) against the wish to practise music or help someone in need (aspires). (Any sensible pair.)
The poem moves from the ghosts in a house to the idea that a spirit world surrounds the whole world of the senses like an atmosphere, breathing a purer air into it, and influences every life through the struggle between earthly and noble instincts. His attitude is calm and reverent: the spirit world is a gentle, ennobling presence, not a fearful one.

Haunted Houses: board-level solved questions

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.

Example 1: MCQ: the stranger · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

In 'Haunted Houses', what does the speaker see at his fireside that the stranger cannot?
(a) Only what is physically present.
(b) The stranger sees the spirits but the speaker does not.
(c) Both the present and the past.
(d) Both the present and the future.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Stanza 4: the stranger perceives only what is.
To the speaker, all that has been is visible: the past as well.

Answer: (c) Both the present and the past.

Example 2: Title-deeds · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

Explain 'We have no title-deeds to house or lands'. What does the poet mean by the earlier owners holding their estates 'in mortmain'?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Title-deed: a legal document proving ownership.
Meaning: we never truly own our property.
Mortmain: literally 'dead hand', a legal hold by which property stays with an institution for ever; here the dead still grip their estates.

Answer: We think we own our houses and land, but we have no true, lasting right to them. Earlier owners, though long dead and forgotten, still 'hold' them with their dusty hands, as if by a dead hand's grip. Ownership is temporary; the past still possesses what we call ours.

Example 3: Paradox of harmless ghosts · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

Why does the poet describe the ghosts as 'harmless' and 'inoffensive'? How does this change the meaning of 'haunted'?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Usual meaning of haunted: frightening.
Poet's ghosts: silent, gentle, like pictures on the wall.
New meaning: filled with memories.

Answer: He wants to show that the presences are memories, not threats. 'Haunted' comes to mean 'filled with the lives and memories of the past', which is true of every home, rather than 'terrifying'.

Example 4: The extended simile · 4 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency

Explain the comparison in the last two stanzas.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

First half: moon from a dark cloud throws a bridge of light over the sea; our fancies cross into mystery.
Second half: spirit world sends a bridge of light to ours; our thoughts wander over it above the abyss.
Meaning: imagination and thought connect the material and spiritual worlds.

Answer: Just as moonlight breaking from a cloud lays a trembling path of light across the sea, along which our imagination travels into the mysterious night, so the spirit world sends down a bridge of light to our world, and our thoughts wander along its swaying floor above the dark abyss. The comparison shows that the two worlds are linked, but the link is delicate and uncertain.

Example 5: Rhyme scheme · 1 mark · Very short answerBoard level

What is the rhyme scheme of 'Haunted Houses'? Give an example.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Check stanza 1: died/glide, doors/floors.

Answer: abab: 'died' rhymes with 'glide', 'doors' with 'floors'.

Where the marks are

How a typical answer is marked: the value points the examiner looks for and the marks each earns.

4 marks: Explain the comparison in the last two stanzas and what it suggests. (4 marks)

Step	Marks
Moon from a dark cloud throws a bridge of light over the sea	1
Our fancies cross it into mystery	1
Likewise the spirit world sends a bridge of light to ours	1
Suggests a delicate link between the material and spiritual worlds	1

Where students lose marks in Haunted Houses

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

Mistake: Treating the poem as a ghost story
The title misleads students into writing about fear.
Do this: Explain that the 'ghosts' are memories and influences of the past.
Usually costs: Theme and interpretation marks.
Mistake: Swapping the stranger and the speaker
MCQ options are designed to confuse who sees what.
Do this: Stranger = present only; speaker = present and past.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Naming a figure of speech without quoting the words
On a similar imagery question in 2025 (The Glove and the Lions), the examiners noted that many candidates 'failed to include specific words from the poem'.
Do this: Name the device, quote the words, explain the effect.
Usually costs: Up to 2 of 3 marks.
Mistake: Summarising instead of explaining lines
Students retell the whole poem for a question on one stanza.
Do this: Explain the given lines closely, then link briefly to the whole poem if asked.
Usually costs: Content marks.

Practice questions on Haunted Houses

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Which figure of speech is used in 'As silent as the pictures on the wall'?
(a) metaphor
(b) simile
(c) personification
(d) hyperbole
Hint
'as … as'.
Answer
(b) simile
Q2 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
What does the poet mean by 'more guests at table than the hosts invited'?
Hint
Who are the uninvited guests?
Answer
At a gathering, besides the invited guests, the memories of people who once lived in the house are present too, silent and unseen; the past shares the table with the living.
Q3 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
How does the spirit world affect our world, according to stanza 6?
Hint
An atmosphere and a breath of air.
Answer
It surrounds our world of the senses like an atmosphere, and through the dense mists of earthly life it sends a living breath of purer, more heavenly air, refreshing and uplifting us.
Q4 · 4 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
Is the poem's mood frightening or reflective? Give two reasons.
Hint
Word choice and ideas.
Answer
Reflective: the ghosts are 'harmless' and 'inoffensive', silent as pictures; and the poem moves into calm thought about life's balance and the spirit world, ending in a gentle image of moonlight.
Q5 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Give a modern example of a 'haunted house' in Longfellow's sense.
Hint
Memories in a place.
Answer
For example, a grandparent's old house where every room recalls someone: the chair where grandfather read the newspaper, the kitchen where grandmother cooked. The memories are present though the people have gone.
Q6 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Why is the planet in stanza 8 'undiscovered'?
Hint
Is it a real planet?
Answer
It is not a real planet but a metaphor for the spirit world's hidden influence on us. It is undiscovered because it cannot be seen or proved, only felt in our inner conflicts and aspirations.
Q7 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Who wrote 'Haunted Houses'?
(a) Leigh Hunt
(b) H.W. Longfellow
(c) Robert Frost
(d) Maya Angelou
Hint
American, nineteenth century.
Answer
(b) H.W. Longfellow

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1.How many stanzas does the poem have, and what is the rhyme scheme?Show answer
Ten quatrains; abab.
2.What does the stranger perceive?Show answer
Only what is: the present.
3.What keeps our lives in equipoise?Show answer
Opposite attractions: the instinct that enjoys and the nobler instinct that aspires.
4.What image ends the poem?Show answer
A bridge of light from the spirit world, compared to moonlight on the sea.
5.How are the ghosts at table described?Show answer
Quiet, inoffensive, as silent as the pictures on the wall.

Quick revision checklist

The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?

Can you explain why every house is 'haunted'?
Can you contrast the stranger and the speaker?
Can you explain 'title-deeds' and 'mortmain'?
Can you explain the two instincts?
Can you explain the bridge-of-light simile?

Haunted Houses: frequently asked questions

What is the central idea of Haunted Houses?

That every house where people have lived and died holds their memory and influence, and that a spiritual world surrounds and influences our material lives.

Are the ghosts in Haunted Houses frightening?

No. The poet calls them harmless and inoffensive; they are silent presences of the past, not horror-story ghosts.

What is the rhyme scheme of Haunted Houses?

Each four-line stanza rhymes abab.

Based on: CISCE ICSE 2027 English syllabus (Paper 2: Literature in English); CISCE ICSE 2027 Appendix I: List of Prescribed Books; CISCE ICSE 2027 Specimen Question Paper and Draft Marking Scheme: Literature in English (English Paper 2); CISCE Analysis of Pupil Performance 2025: Literature in English (examiners' comments)