Old Houses by Lizette Woodworth Reese

February 15, 2015   Old Houses   Lizette Woodworth Reese

Old loveliness, set in the country wind, Or down some vain town road the careless tread, Like hush of candles lighted for the dead, That look of yours, half seeing and half blind. Still do you strain at door, but we come not, The little maids, the lads, bone of your bone; In some sad wise, you keep the dusk alone, Old loveliness, a many a day forgot. But no; behind each weather do you pass, The garnered poignancies of all the springs: At some girl’s belt in Lent the jonquils start;— But, oh, their like in your old windy grass! Then are we quick with tears, rememberings; Once more, once more, are gathered to your heart!            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Old Houses” was published in Reese’s book Spicewood(The Norman, Remington Co., 1920).   Lizette Woodworth Reese was born in Maryland, in 1856. She was named poet laureate of Maryland in 1931. Her books include A Branch of May(1887) and A Wayside Lute (1909). Reese died in 1935. Poetry by Reese   Spicewood (Hardpress Publishing, 2013) "My House, I Say" by Robert Louis Stevenson "Where They Lived" by Thomas Hardy "Home is so Sad" by Philip Larkin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006,Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.