The Kitchen Chimney
Builder, in building the little house,In every way you may please yourself;But please please me in the kitchen chimney:Don't build me a chimney upon a shelf.
However far you must go for bricks,Whatever they cost a-piece or a pound,Buy me enough for a full-length chimney,And build the chimney clear from the ground.
It's not that I'm greatly afraid of fire,But I never heard of a house that throve(And I know of one that didn't thrive)Where the chimney started above the stove.
And I dread the ominous stain of tarThat there always is on the papered walls,And the smell of fire drowned in rainThat there always is when the chimney's false.
A shelf's for a clock or vase or picture,But I don't see why it should have to bearA chimney that only would serve to remind meOf castles I used to build in air.
Words in this poem
- chimney n.
- A fireplace or hearth. Sir W. Raleigh.
- remind v. t.
- To put (one) in mind of something; to bring to the remembrance of; to bring to the notice or consideration of (a person).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Kitchen Chimney is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Hampshire, A Poem; with Notes and Grace Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #58611; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, The Kitchen Chimney, in New Hampshire (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #58611, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-new-hampshire/the-kitchen-chimney.html, id L02705.
Form and metre
The Kitchen Chimney is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A house · yourselfA · chimney · shelfA
- 2 -A-A bricks · poundA · chimney · groundA
- 3 -A-A fire · throveA · thrive · stoveA
- 5 -A-A picture · bearA · me · airA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Builder, in building the little house, | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| In every way you may please yourself; | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| But please please me in the kitchen chimney: | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Don't build me a chimney upon a shelf. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| However far you must go for bricks, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Whatever they cost a-piece or a pound, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Buy me enough for a full-length chimney, | 10 | ··˘/····/˘ |
| And build the chimney clear from the ground. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| It's not that I'm greatly afraid of fire, | 11 | ····/˘˘/·/˘ |
| But I never heard of a house that throve | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| (And I know of one that didn't thrive) | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Where the chimney started above the stove. | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| And I dread the ominous stain of tar | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| That there always is on the papered walls, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| And the smell of fire drowned in rain | 10 | ····/˘·˘·· |
| That there always is when the chimney's false. | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| A shelf's for a clock or vase or picture, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But I don't see why it should have to bear | 10 | ·········· |
| A chimney that only would serve to remind me | 12 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/· |
| Of castles I used to build in air. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.