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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE OLD HOUSE, by GRACE DUFFIE BOYLAN
First Line: Cold and cheerless, bare and bleak
Last Line: For us and all the children.
Subject(s): Children; Houses; Muses; Poverty; Childhood
First Line: Cold and cheerless, bare and bleak
Last Line: For us and all the children.
Subject(s): Children; Houses; Muses; Poverty; Childhood
COLD and cheerless, bare and bleak,
The old house fronts the shabby street;
And the dull windows eastward gaze,
As their cobwebbed brows they raise,
Just as though they looked to see
What had become of you and me
And all the other children.
The dust drifts o'er the garret floor,
The little feet tread there no more;
But o'er the stage, still standing there,
The Muse first stalked with tragic air
And whispered low to you and me
Of golden days that were to be
For us and all the children.
Good-bye, old house! Thy tattered cloak
Is fringed with moss and gray with smoke;
Within thy walls we used to see
A gaunt old wolf named Poverty;
Yet from thy rafters' dingy bars
A ladder stretched up to the stars —
For us and all the children.
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