Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.

The House of Rest

Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)

I WILL build a house of rest,

Square the corners every one:

At each angle on his breast

Shall a cherub take the sun;

Rising, risen, sinking, down,

Weaving day’s unequal crown.

In the chambers, light as air,

Shall responsive footsteps fall:

Brother, sister, art thou there?

Hush! we need not jar nor call;

Need not turn to seek the face

Shut in rapture’s hiding-place.

Heavy load and mocking care

Shall from back and bosom part;

Thought shall reach the thrill of prayer,

Patience plan the dome of art.

None shall praise or merit claim,

Not a joy be called by name.

With a free, unmeasured tread

Shall we pace the cloisters through:

Rest, enfranchised, like the Dead;

Rest till Love be born anew.

Weary Thought shall take his time,

Free of task-work, loosed from rhyme.

No reproof shall grieve or chill;

Every sin doth stand confest;

None need murmur, “This was ill:”

Therefore do they grant us rest;

Contemplation making whole

Every ruin of the soul.

Pictures shall as softly look

As in distance shows delight;

Slowly shall each saintly book

Turn its pages in our sight;

Not the study’s wealth confuse,

Urging zeal to pale abuse.

Children through the windows peep,

Not reproachful, though our own;

Hushed the parent passion deep,

And the household’s eager tone.

One above, divine and true,

Makes us children like to you.

Measured bread shall build us up

At the hospitable board;

In Contentment’s golden cup

Is the guileless liquor poured.

May the beggar pledge the king

In that spirit gathering.

Oh! my house is far away;

Yet it sometimes shuts me in.

Imperfection mars each day

While the perfect works begin.

In the house of labor best

Can I build the house of rest.