Henry David Thoreau



                   I Knew A Man By Sight


                   I knew a man by sight, 
                      A blameless wight, 
                   Who, for a year or more, 
                   Had daily passed my door, 
                    Yet converse none had had with him. 

                   I met him in a lane, 
                      Him and his cane, 
                   About three miles from home, 
                   Where I had chanced to roam, 
                    And volumes stared at him, and he at me. 

                   In a more distant place 
                      I glimpsed his face, 
                   And bowed instinctively; 
                   Starting he bowed to me, 
                    Bowed simultaneously, and passed along. 

                   Next, in a foreign land 
                      I grasped his hand, 
                   And had a social chat, 
                   About this thing and that, 
                    As I had known him well a thousand years. 

                   Late in a wilderness 
                      I shared his mess, 
                   For he had hardships seen, 
                   And I a wanderer been; 
                    He was my bosom friend, and I was his. 

                   And as, methinks, shall all, 
                      Both great and small, 
                   That ever lived on earth, 
                   Early or late their birth, 
                    Stranger and foe, one day each other know.


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