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I apologize for the inconvenience, and thanks for bearing with me.

One of my coworkers wanted a recording of Sam Walter Foss' "House By The Side of the Road" to give to a friend of hers as a birthday gift; she asked me if I could recite and record the piece for her, and I agreed. I really like how the recording turned out, so I thought I'd offer it up here as a free download to my readers. Click here to download the file.

Foss was a poet and librarian in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You can read more about him here.

The text of the poem:

House by the Side of the Road
by Sam Walter Foss

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn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.

After a suggestion from Jan Oda of ErgoFiction, I've implemented a new feature here on the site.

Now, when you make a comment on a blog post, poem, or other piece of content on this site, you'll be given the option to subscribe to the comments of that post. Anytime someone else replies to the post, you'll get an e-mail reminder so you can check out the latest responses.

By default, no notifications are sent. You can enable subscriptions on a post-by-post basis as you make comments, or if you're a registered user of the site, you can auto-enable subscriptions for all posts you comment on by going to your account settings.