939018Vision — illustrations by Howard PyleWilliam Dean Howells
VISION
ITHIN a poor man's squalid home I stood: The one bare chamber, where his work-worn wife Above the stove and wash-tub passed her life,
Next the sty where they slept with all their brood.
But I saw not that sunless, breathless lair, The chamber's sagging roof and reeking floor; The smeared walls, broken sash, and battered door;
The foulness and forlornness everywhere.
I saw a great house with the portals wide Upon a banquet room, and, from without, The guests descending in a brilliant line
By the stair's statued niches, and beside The loveliest of the gemmed and silken rout The poor man's landlord leading down to dine.
