The Kitchen Chimney | |
by Robert Frost | |
BUILDER, in building the little house, | |
In every way you may please yourself; | |
But please please me in the kitchen chimney: | |
Don't build me a chimney upon a shelf. | |
5 |
However far you must go for bricks, |
Whatever they cost a-piece or a pound, | |
Buy me enough for a full-length chimney, | |
And build the chimney clear from the ground. | |
It's not that I'm greatly afraid of fire, | |
10 |
But I never heard of a house that throve |
(And I know of one that didn't thrive) | |
Where the chimney started above the stove. | |
And I dread the ominous stain of tar | |
That there always is on the papered walls, | |
15 |
And the smell of fire drowned in rain |
That there always is when the chimney's false. | |
A shelf's for a clock or vase or picture, | |
But I don't see why it should have to bear | |
A chimney that only would serve to remind me | |
20 |
Of castles I used to build in air. |
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From the Perscribo.com online eBook: New Hampshire by Robert Frost BACK TO TOP |
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Transcribed and formatted for Internet reading, with addition of line numbers and edits to footnotes, from the 1923 (Henry Holt and Company) hardcover edition of New Hampshire by Robert Frost.