Outside the house an ash-tree hung its terrible whips, br And at night when the wind arose, the lash of the tree br Shrieked and slashed the wind, as a ship’s br Weird rigging in a storm shrieks hideously. br br Within the house two voices arose in anger, a slender lash br Whistling delirious rage, and the dreadful sound br Of a thick lash booming and bruising, until it drowned br The other voice in a silence of blood, ’neath the noise of the ash.