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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HOUSE WITH THE MARBLE STEPS, by AMY LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: He built the house to show his neighbors Last Line: Above a flight of marble steps where grass is growing. Subject(s): Death; Houses; Dead, The | |||
He built the house to show his neighbors That decent thrift could lead to this, A giddy reason for his labors, A bright brick apothesis. He was not one to be bulldozed By sentiment, and he had planned Past whispered sneers when he foreclosed The mortgage on this very land. He'd forced his way with prudent greed While they at best remained the same. He gauged the folly of a creed Which keeps a lame purse always lame. Well, here it was, and in the road He stood and tallied beam and rafter. The cost would be a heavy load He'd tell you, twisting into laughter. The window-edges were of stone, A soapy limestone smooth and fair. The floors were all hard wood and none Tailed off to pine beneath a stair. If he were old and quite infirm, His house was very fresh and young, And envy is a winding worm -- These thoughts were pepper to his tongue. And so he watched it grow and grow, And jotted down the things he heard, Scheming to balance by the blow His house should deal as final word. To crown the whole and go beyond Whatever yet had been attempted. In his small town, he signed a bond Which would most certainly have emptied The pockets of quite half his friends, Even to him it was a point, But when a man aims at such ends He must keep stiff in every joint. He bought a quarry's good half year Of first-class, fine-grained marble output, He paid a mason very near As much again to have it cut. The sharp white polished steps were grand Descending from the stucco porch. They glittered like a marching band, They mounted upward like a torch. But he had taken to his bed Before the last was set in place, And one week later he was dead With a slow smile upon his face. The marble flashed beneath the fall Of undertakers' feet who carried His coffin to the funeral Within the house. And there he tarried For fifteen minutes more or less, And "dust to dust" they read above him. Now who had gained in bitterness -- For not one soul was there to love him? They gaped upon the shining floors, Their eyes scanned ceiling heights and blocked them. When all was done, they shut the doors And shrugged their shoulders as they locked them. The house is charming now with weeds Sprung all about, the steps are mellow With little grass and flower-seeds Drifting across their sun-stained yellow. Empty it stands and so has stood More years than the town clerk can tell. No legend has it he was good, No tale reports that he did well. They tried to sell it, off and on, But not a person wants to buy, Though visitors who've come and gone Remember it against the sky In shrewd and sweet proportions glowing Above a flight of marble steps where grass is growing. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY |
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