On a train journey, the speaker catches sight of an ugly pumpkin-coloured house and can’t stop thinking about the people who live there. She doesn’t judge them harshly; instead, she feels a curious, tender concern. Did they choose the colour, or was it all the shop had? Are they happy with it, or just trying to make do? Her sympathy grows into a series of small hopes. She imagines the house glowing like a lantern in the surrounding green fields after dark, and she pictures the couple inside on a rainy day, saying to each other, “Don’t it look nice and bright?” The poem’s plain, chatty phrasing makes it feel intimate and unguarded. What begins as a passing glimpse becomes a gentle, almost affectionate wish for strangers to be proud of their home.
Sympathy — Summary
That ugly pumpkin-coloured house That I saw from the train-- I have wondered about the minds of the people inside But I wonder in vain. Did they choose that paint? Or perhaps it was brought them to buy-- Oh I hope now they’ve got it all done that they like it-- And don’t just have to try. Oh I hope that it shines there for them In their sunny green fields Like a lantern at night-- And I hope that on dull rainy days they both say to each other “Don’t it look nice and bright?”
Oh I think I shall never forget them In their new-painted house!