Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1919 — THE OPEN WINDOW [ARTICLE]

THE OPEN WINDOW

My tower was grimly builded. With many a bolt and bar, ; "And here,” I thought, “I will keep my life From the bitter world afar.” Dark and chill was the stony floor, 'Where never a sunbeam lay, And the mold crept up on the dreary "wall. With its ghost touch, day by day. Onemorn,fri~niysullenmusings. A flutter and cry I heard; And close at the rusty casement There clung a frightened bird._ Then back I flung the shutter That was never before undone, And I kept till its wings were rested The little weary one. But in through the open window, Which I had forgot to close. There had burst a gush of sunshine And a summer scent of rose. For all the while I had burrowed —There in my dingy tower, • Lo! the bird had sung and the leaves had danced ~ From hour to sunny hour. And such balm and warmth and beauty Came drifting in since then, That the window still_stands open And Shall never be shut again. —Edward Roland Sill.