A PRAYER ON GOING INTO MY HOUSE
 
 GOD grant a blessing on this tower and cottage
 And on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled,
 No table or chair or stool not simple enough
 For shepherd lads in Galilee; and grant
 That I myself for portions of the year
 May handle nothing and set eyes on nothing
 But what the great and passionate have used
 Throughout so many varying centuries
 We take it for the norm; yet should I dream
 Sinbad the sailor's brought a painted chest,
 Or image, from beyond the Loadstone Mountain,
 That dream is a norm; and should some limb of the Devil
 Destroy the view by cutting down an ash
 That shades the road, or setting up a cottage
 Planned in a government office, shorten his life,
 Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom.