The speaker imagines his heart as an old, dark house with an inscription on its door. The message says that whoever once lived there is long dead, as lifeless as moss-covered stone. What remains is only a ghost—a solitary presence with no longing or warmth of its own. It sits by a cold hearth and leans toward a fire that isn’t really there. The poem captures a state of emotional emptiness after loss or deep hurt. The person who used to feel fully has gone, and something hollow has taken his place. The mood is quiet, eerie, and sorrowful, but also strangely still, as if the speaker has grown used to living as a ghost inside himself.
Inscription — Summary
He wrote upon his heart As on the door of some dark ancient house: Who once lived here has long been dead As dead as moss-grown stone Only a ghost inhabits here One that would be alone Only a ghost inhabits here A ghost without desire Who sits before a shadowed hearth And warms to a spectral fire....