Anyone Home?

It was shady where the house stood
Under the lee of the slope
Evergreens screened out the sunlight
Filtering through the valley from the south.

Anyway, it was cloudy when I came
And recent rain was dripping from the trees.
Moss on the doorstep was untrodden as if
No-one had entered for a while, but
It seemed light glimmered behind a film of algae
On the window panes, phantom smoke drifted
Out of a broken chimney into the empty air.

There was no way to say that I was here,
No bell or knocker on the door; I rapped
On its faded brown panels but they absorbed
The sound like a whisper in the wind.
I tapped on the window glass and peered
Through its opacity for any sign
Of movement inside. But there was none:

Only a sense of something that had gone.