The House by Arthur Willis Colton — Read

PART I. WEST-EASTERLY MORALITIES

Such an house I'll build and own,

When into old contentment grown

With reaping what my youth has sown.

The drooping roof be low and wide,

Curved like a seashell's inner side;

Let vines the patient pillars hide

Of that deep porch and ample shade;

There let no hurrying step invade,

Troubled or anxious or afraid.

I pray that birches very white

May stand athwart the woods at night,

Sweet and slim by late moonlight;

And I desire a beech may be

Not far away from mine and me,

Strong, pure, serene, and matronly;

An oak outspread in ample space,

Strength out of storms met face to face,

In his male girth and wide embrace.

Lest all the years go by in vain