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, 
But 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 tar 
That there always is on the papered walls, 
And the smell of fire drowned in rain 
That 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 bear 
A chimney that only would serve to remind me 
Of castles I used to build in air.