This is the house where little Aldrich read
The early pages of Life's wonder-book
With boyish pleasure: in this ingle-nook
He watched the drift-wood fire of Fancy shed
Bright colour on the pictures blue and red:
Boy-like he skipped the longer words, and took
His happy way, with searching, dreamful look
Among the deeper things more simply said.
Then, came his turn to write: and still the flame
Of Fancy played through all the tales he told,
And still he won the laurelled poet's fame
With simple words wrought into rhymes of gold.
Look, here's the face to which this house is frame,--
A man too wise to let his heart grow old!
The poet Thomas Bailey Aldrich was born in this house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was turned into a memorial by his widow.
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about New Hampshire.