Foresight: Stronger

A nunnery grave, Isle of Iona, Scotland (Photo: Carina Postolache)

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'The Strange Guest' by Alfred Noyes

​You cannot leave a new house
 With any open door,
But a strange guest will enter it
 And never leave it more.

Build it on a waste land,
 Dreary as a sin.
Leave her but a broken gate
 And Beauty will come in.

Build it all of scarlet brick,
 Work your wicked will.
Dump it on an ash-heap,
 Then--O then, be still.

Sit and watch your new house
 Leave an open door.
A strange guest will enter it
 And never leave it more.

She will make your raw wood
 Mellower than gold.
She will take your new lamps
 And sell them for old.

She will crumble all your pride,
 Break your folly down.
Much that you rejected
 She will bless and crown.

She will rust your naked roof,
 Split your pavement through,
Dip her brush in sun and moon
 And colour it anew.

Leave her but a window
 Wide to wind and rain,
You shall find her footstep
 When you come again.

Though she keep you waiting
 Many months or years,
She shall stain and make it
 Beautiful with tears.

She shall hurt and heal it,
 Soften it and save,
Blessing it, until it stand
 Stronger than the grave.

You cannot leave a new house
 With any open door,
But a strange guest will enter it
 And never leave it more. 

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Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) was an English poet.