Haunts Me Like a Face Half Known

World-Strangeness
by William Watson

Strange the world about me lies,
 Never yet familiar grown
 Still disturbs me with surprise,
 Haunts me like a face half known. 

 In this house with starry dome,
 Floored with gemlike plains and seas,
 Shall I never feel at home,
 Never wholly be at ease?

 On from room to room I stray,
 Yet my Host can ne'er espy,
 And I know not to this day
 Whether guest or captive I. 

 So, between the starry dome
 And the floor of plains and seas,
 I have never felt at home,
 Never wholly been at ease.

Sir William Watson (1858-1935) was a major English poet in the decades after Tennyson's death -- perhaps better regarded at the time than Alfred Austin, the poet who succeeded Tennyson as Poet Laureate -- but by the end of his life was already almost unknown; a great deal of his poetry is political in nature, which is perhaps the reason why.