The Kitchen Chimney

Builder, in building the little house,

In every way you may please yourself;

But please please me in the kitchen chimney:

Don't build me a chimney upon a shelf.



However far you must go for bricks,

Whatever they cost a-piece or a pound,

But me enough for a full-length chimney,

And build the chimney clear from the ground.



It's not that I'm greatly afraid of fire,

But I never heard of a house that throve

(And I know of one that didn't thrive)

Where the chimney started above the stove.



And I dread the ominous stain of tar

That there always is on the papered walls,

And the smell of fire drowned in rain

That there always is when the chimney's false.



A shelf's for a clock or vase or picture,

But I don't see why it should have to bear

A chimney that only would serve to remind me

Of castles I used to build in air.