Classic Poem

Oh, fain would I house me near this road,
Still beaten by horses' hoofs,
In steps that might seek or leave the town
With lines of its cluster'd roofs,
Where seldom I find a long-heard tongue
But that of the bell yet rung.

And folks, as they came of old, come by,
From farther to near and clear,
But seldom I see a face that smiled
To mine in an early year;
Yet, welcome they wend their way, and tread
The road in the old folks' stead.

And elders see two sights where to youth
No other than one is seen;
The old see a spot as now it is
And so as it erst has been;
The life of to-day they have in view
With one that the young ne'er knew.

I know that the tow'r is that which rose
So tall in my early sky,
I know 'twas that bridge's stoney back
That bore my young footsteps dry;
I know that the stream winds, bow by bow,
Where then I beheld it flow.

So sing, O ye birds, that seem to sing
Your fiftieth year of song;
Stalk on, lowing cows, that seem to low
As old as my life is long;
Ye horses, you surely came this way
When I was a boy at play.