Life is full of changes,
Years are hard and long;
But the world's teakettles
Keep their old song:

The same good humming
That they've hummed, nights and days,
Since a woman set the first one
Over a blaze.

Oh, the long pleasure
Their music has been
To calm cats purring
With their paws folded in:

To gray grandmothers
In the twilight sitting,
Feet on a cricket,
Hands full of knitting;

To children nodding, nodding
At the edge of a dream,
Their heads all misty
In a silver steam!

Time, change, weather--
None of those things
Can make much trouble
When a teakettle sings!


This poem in in the public domain.