I LOVE old gardens Where the roots grow deep: Yet someone must dig stones And mind the sheep. I love old houses Blessed by birth and death: Yet many folds must be, The Shepherd saith. I love old shady roads, Wet with sweet rain: Yet there are orders out To make rough places plain. I love the old dear ways Wherein my fathers trod: Yet must be blazed new trails That lead to God. So I who love the old Must shape the new: God! with the fathers as with us! Make the work true! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHELL TO THE PEARL by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE WAY TO ARCADY by HENRY CUYLER BUNNER A CHRISTMAS FOLKSONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE WIND IN A FROLIC by WILLIAM HOWITT SEVEN TIMES ONE [- CHILDHOOD. EXULTATION] by JEAN INGELOW ON BOARD THE '76; WRITTEN FOR BRYANT'S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |