This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass, And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass. It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied; But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside. If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade. Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door, Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store. But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone For the lack of something within it that it has never known. But a house that has done what a house should do, a house that has sheltered life, That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife, A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet, Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet. So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back, Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart, For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart. CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. What does Kilmer mean by the last line? What may be the cause of the old house having "a broken heart"? 2. Find and read aloud the lines which tell what the old house needed most. 3. Why does the poet think a deserted old house is more mournful and tragic than a new and empty house? Read aloud the stanzas in which you find the answer. 4. Explain the first line in the next to the last stanza. 5. Are there any houses in your neighborhood like the one described by Kilmer? Do you know how they came to be empty? ADDITIONAL READINGS. - I. "Roofs," J. Kilmer, in Main Street and Other Poems. 2. "Empty," B. Braley, in Scribner's Magazine, 74:683. 3. "The Purchasers," M. H. Clark, ibid., 75:49–50. 5. THE ROOF-TREE CHARLES WAGNER A house, according to Wagner, is first a shelter; second, a restingplace; and third, a revelation of the character of the people who live in it. To understand the author's thought you will need to study the selection. Try this plan: 1. Read the selection through slowly and carefully. 2. Find where each of the three parts begins and ends. 3. Read again the part which discusses the house as a shelter, looking in the glossary for the meaning of the words you cannot understand from their use in the sentence; then try to put the author's thought in your own words. 4. Do with the second and third parts of the selection-the discussion of the house as a resting-place and as a revelation of the souls of the people who live in it—what you have just done with the first part. 5. Answer the questions at the end of the selection. I cross with emotion the threshold of a home, because its very name is so full of suggestions and memories. The roof is first of all a shelter. Cold and heat, all the inclemencies of sky and enemies of earth, urge man to build it and protect it. He who lacks this refuge lacks everything. To picture in a word the depths of want, we say of a man that he is homeless. If you would have, on the contrary, a perfect picture of happiness, you may find it in a family circle, unbroken, old and young together, under the protecting roof, around a cheerful fire where the evening meal is singing in the kettle. But the roof is something more than a shelter. If man had no need of it for cover and defense, he would still feel driven to find somewhere in the wide earth a corner of his own, to attach himself to some familiar spot. True, life is a journey, and we are all on a pilgrimage; but every one of us is in search of a country. The boldest traveller, the most untiring explorer, cannot exist and be always journeying. When distance has lost its enchantment and his ardor for adventure has cooled, when he has braved dangers and looked upon wonders, desire wakens in his heart to find a resting-place. The more countries and men he has seen, the greater becomes his thirst for a fixed abode, for peace, and the affections of a home. A sure refuge, a rallying-point whither all a man's ways lead him back-the roof-tree is this; but it is other than this, and more. Man has need of creating a world in his own image, and his dwelling is this world in miniature. From the rudest and most primitive shelter to the perfectly appointed house, every dwelling-place reveals the soul of its inhabitant. The lines of roof and walls, the close of windows, the style and arrangement of furnishings and pictures, the "den," even the flower growing in the window-all bear the human stamp. What a man is, what his ideals are, such is his home. One man's house is like the lair of a beast, grim and inhospitable; another's is inviting and homelike, even to the guest of a day or the stranger within its gates. In some dwellings one breathes an incense, as of the spirit; they are like havens of safety. In others everything suggests worldly interests, the fierce strife of possession. Elsewhere, no sooner are you across the threshold than an atmosphere of study surrounds you; every corner breathes a spirit of revery and thought, of which even the dullest visitor is sensible. Take at random a dozen homes on the same corridor of a great tenement-house in the poorer quarters. They are identical in size, plan, and exposure, yet how marked and how very strange the contrasts! In no two do we breathe the same atmosphere, and so different are the impressions received that we might be crossing frontiers or passing from continent to continent. It is simply that a room, even a prison cell, takes on the aspect of its tenant. The same gloves on different hands, the same costumes on different women, are transformed by differences of figure, mind, and culture; and the same walls, housing different people, produce totally different effects. -Adapted. CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. Why does the author call a house a roof-tree? 2. Name five kinds of "inclemencies of sky" and of "enemies of earth" from which a house gives protection. 3. What is a "miniature"? See glossary. Is your room at home a "miniature" of yourself? Explain whether a stranger could tell what kind of boy or girl you are by visiting your room. 4. Describe the three kinds of homes pictured in the next to the last paragraph. 5. Tell about a beautiful home you once visited which seemed to reveal the character of the people who lived in it. Mention details that gave you this impression. 6. What is a house for? What does it reveal? 6. PRAYER FOR A LITTLE HOME ANONYMOUS God send us a little home To come back to when we roam. Low walls and fluted tiles, Wide windows, a view for miles. Red firelight and deep chairs, Great talk in little nooks, Dim colors, rows of books. One picture on each wall, God send us a little ground, Homely flowers in brown sod. CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS THE DWELLING-PLACE I. "The Houses of the Colonists," Real Stories from Our History, 17-23. 2. "An Early Home Near Philadelphia," ibid., 60-65. 3. "When the West Was New," ibid., 98-103. 4. "Beautifying Homes," A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After, 134–140. 5. "Building of Homes," World Book, 1: 322. 6. "The Homes of the Bees," ibid., 1: 649; Book of Knowledge, 9: 2815-2826. 7. Cats," Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 2:657–659. 8. "Where Beauty Rules the Humblest Home," ibid., 4: 1873-1876. 9. "Homes Not Made With Hands," Book of Knowledge, 17:5411 5417. 10. "The Plunge Into the Wilderness," John Muir, in Atlantic Prose and Poetry, 33-44. II. "The Muskrats Are Building," D. L. Sharp, ibid., 307-320. |