House by the Side of the Road

This collection contains one of the most accidentally famous poems in American literature. "The House by the Side of the Road" has lived on for over a century not through classrooms or anthologies, but through the voice of baseball announcer Ernie Harwell, who spoke those words every time a batter watched a called third strike drift by. The poem itself is a quiet thing: an invitation to stand firm, to be a welcoming presence on life's busy highway, to let the crowds pass while keeping one's dignity intact. Foss wrote a poem a day for newspapers, and these verses carry that rawness direct from the common man to anyone listening. They're not polished classics meant for ivory towers; they're homely, frank, and surprisingly resilient. The title poem has outlasted countless literary movements simply by being there, a stubborn little house on the side of the road, watching the world rush past. For baseball fans who know Harwell's words, for lovers of unpretentious American verse, for anyone who prefers quiet strength to grandstanding.