Bayard Taylor - The Poet's House lyrics

Where should the Poet's house and household be? Beneath what skies, in what untroubled air Sings he for very joy of songs so fair That in their steadfast laws he most is free? In woods remote, where darkly tree on tree Let fall their curtained shadows, to ensnare His dreams, or hid in Fancy's happiest lair,-- Some laughing island of the stormless sea? Ah, never such to him their welcome gave! But, flattered by the gods in finer scorn, He drifts upon the world's unresting wave, As drifts a sea-flower, by the tempest torn From sheltered porches of the coral cave Where it expands, of calm and silence born.