| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Song: ‘Why do the houses stand’ | | By George MacDonald (1824–1905) |
| | | WHY do the houses stand | |
| When they that built them are gone; | |
| When remaineth even of one | |
| That lived there and loved and planned | |
| Not a face, not an eye, not a hand, | 5 |
| Only here and there a bone? | |
| Why do the houses stand | |
| When they who built them are gone? | |
| Oft in the moonlighted land | |
| When the day is overblown, | 10 |
| With happy memorial moan | |
| Sweet ghosts in a loving band | |
| Roam through the houses that stand— | |
| For the builders are not gone. | | | | |
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