Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STANZAS, by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STANZAS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How well I remember the paths that I trod
Last Line: How warm was my fancy, how cold is the truth.
Subject(s): Truth


How well I remember the paths that I trod
When a boy, with my bait and my light little rod;
How eager I went, and how patient I stood,
And felt not a bite through the whole afternoon;
Wet, hungry, and tired, how, at sundown, I came,
The leaf it was green and the verdure the same,
But returning I found it so cold and so tame,
'T was December to me, to the wood it was June.
I had dwelt where the lovely, the young, and the gay
Shed light on my path --but I went on my way,
My errand was fruitless, and tedious my stay,
And saddened I turned to the home of my youth;
Where now is the music, the life, and the glee --
There are smiles, there are dimples, --they are not for me,
And my faint, sickening spirit too plainly can see,
How warm was my fancy, how cold is the truth.






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