Let me live in a...
Illustration
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by --
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I see from my house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of home,
The men who are faint with the strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears --
Both parts of an infinite plan;
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night,
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
[I can't] live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
--"The House by the Side of the Road," Sam Walter Foss, 1858-1911, adapted
Where the race of men go by --
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I see from my house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of home,
The men who are faint with the strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears --
Both parts of an infinite plan;
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night,
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
[I can't] live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
--"The House by the Side of the Road," Sam Walter Foss, 1858-1911, adapted
