And I have come upon this place
By lost ways, by a nod, by words,
By faces, by an old man’s face
At Morlaix lifted to the birds,

By hands upon the tablecloth
At Aldebori’s, by the thin
Child’s hands that opened to the moth
And let the flutter of the moonlight in,

By hands, by voices, by the voice
Of Mrs. Whitman on the stair,
By Margaret’s “If we had the choice
To choose or not—” through her thick hair,

By voices, by the creak and fall
Of footsteps on the upper floor,
By silence waiting in the hall
Between the doorbell and the door,

By words, by voices, a lost way—
And here above the chimney stack
The unknown constellations sway—
And by what way shall I go back?