Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-2
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
- Okay. Right off the bat, this is a silly poem.
- We mean, nightgowns are basically big, white shirts that come down to the ankle. They're glorified sheets that people sleep in. They're ridiculous-looking.
- Like out of some cartoon (do people watch Scooby Doo anymore?), a house is haunted by a person in a sheet… ish.
- But it's not just one house. It's a whole bunch of houses. Those nightgowns are on the rampage.
- The speaker might be giving the suburbs a hard time for being filled with boring people. In other words, we think that whole "haunted" business is really just a metaphor for the way in which all those denizens of suburbia wear the same exact boring old thing to bed.
Lines 3-6
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
- Yep, it's a silly one.
- Ugh, what a shame that none of these nightgowns are green, or purple, or any other color, with a little pattern. You know, something to shake things up?
- See, the speaker is listing all the crazy colors that the nightgowns could be, but aren't, because the people in them don't like fun. He's using a little thing we like to call anaphora, or repeated phrases at the beginning of a like (in this case "Or") to really drive home the point.
- By saying what the nightgowns don't look like, the speaker is giving us clues into how the scene could be more interesting if the people in the houses put a little effort into their wardrobes.
- These nightgowns almost sound clown-like. The imagery here is all about bright colors and bold patterns.
Lines 7-9
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
- None of the nightgowns are weird enough for the speaker, who's obviously into absurd art. Either that or he's friends with Dolly Parton, who's no stranger to beads and lace.
- Since the subject of the sentence is a pronoun ("them"), we're not exactly sure what he or she is talking about, but we can assume he's referring to the nightgowns here.
- Still, it's possible that the speaker is trying to tell us that the houses or the people in the houses aren't strange either. Which is a big ol' bummer.
- The speaker thinks some lacy socks (um, those sound uncomfortable) or beaded belts (a.k.a. "ceintures") could jazz up the nightgowns.
- We agree. You know, we here at Shmoop our known for our style, and we'd like to add a little flow and color to the outfit.