Verse and Reverse (1921)/Old Houses

Rags and bottles and bones!
Bones and bottles and rags!
And my old brass knocker groans,
At the touch of the pedlar hags.

Skirts of green were my birthright.
Oaken rafters my frame,
Bowers of mine held the twilight,
Governors courted my name.

My elm tree cast its shadow
When Simcoe's train went by;
My gables lit to the dawning,
Ere Brock rode forth to die.

My portal lions are melted;
My sheltering gates reft down;
My high grove gave its timbers,
To build the old York town.

And here, amid the junk heaps,
I wait the wreckers' hands,
To home my gallant company
Who dwell in other lands.

Rags and bottles and bones!
Bones and bottles and rags!
Servants are we of all things;
And fool, the man who brags.