This week’s choice is “The House by the Side of the Road” by Sam Walter Foss which I have chosen for David and Hannah who are house-hunting.
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
Sam Walter Foss (1858—1911)
And be a friend to man.
Poem 416. The House by the Side of the Road
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths
Where highways never ran—
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
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
Nor 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,
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan—
Let me live in a 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.
And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by—
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish—so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
This poem by Sam Walter Foss speaks of “a house by the side of the road” where he can watch people as they pass by. It is supposedly inspired by his home in Tilton (New Hampshire) where he attended the Tilton Seminary before going to Brown University, although his childhood home in Candia also has a claim to be this house.
As with so many poems however, it’s not really about a building at all. It seems to me to speak of standing apart just a little from the human race and observing them as they progress through life: people-watching if you will, but on a grander scale than sitting at a café and surveying the passers-by.
Foss begins by contrasting those who “live withdrawn” and those who “blaze the paths/Where highways never ran—” with his wish to live near to—but not encompassed by—“the race of men”, wishing to be a friend to his fellow men (and, I assume, women), perhaps helping them in their onward journey in some way—feeding them or giving them water in a figurative sense? Foss was a librarian as well as a poet, so he was well-versed (as it were) in helping people to find the books and ideas they sought.
The narrator does not make a distinction between good men and bad, the hopeful and the despairing, the joyous and the miserable, or the wise and the foolish—all will eventually pass his “house by the road”—the vantage point from which he wishes to observe them: just detached enough to watch but passing no judgment on their choices: he will not “sit in the scorner’s seat,/Or hurl the cynic’s ban”, he wants to welcome each on their own merits and watch them as they pass through his life and past his “house by the side of the road”.
I like the poem because it is straight-forward but its dual meaning makes it interesting. Foss’s dictum of observing and accepting rather than judging those who we meet along our life’s path is one that we all should take to our hearts.
I have found a number of performances of the poem online but the version spoken by Ed Begley Sr on the Ed Begley — Topic YouTube channel is excellent.
I wish David and Hannah every success with their house hunting and hope that they find the place of their dreams.