Classic Poem

There came along
down the lane,
waddling genially,
nodding amiably,
like a girl
with her prayer book
on her way to Sunday school—
save
that he led a small cart
quite as inoffensive as himself,
laden with corn and cauliflower,
cheerful beans and beets,
and wore a pyramidal straw hat
on his rhomboid head—
there came along
an old thin horse,
alone
and so absent-minded,
he didn't return my bow,
but waddled on,
veered down another lane
and disappeared.