_Douglas Malloch._




THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD


This poem has as its keynote friendship and sympathy for other people.
It is a paradox of life that by hoarding love and happiness we lose
them, and that only by giving them away can we keep them for ourselves.
The more we share, the more we possess. We of course find in other
people weaknesses and sins, but our best means of curing these are
through a wise and sympathetic understanding.


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 hope,
The men who are faint with the strife.