Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD HITCHING POST, by CONSTANCE ENTWHISTLE HOAR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD HITCHING POST, by                    
First Line: I discovered, one day, while taking a walk
Last Line: "of his story was true."
Subject(s): Story-telling


I discovered, one day, while taking a walk,
An old hitching post on a narrow back street,
When a bent little man that I happened to meet
Stopped me to talk.

He said, "See the house with the shutters closed tight?
Strange things happened there years ago;
Winter or summer, rain or snow --
Lights late at night.

"Never did see a horse at this post,
But when it was dark we would hear one neigh,
And hoofprints were found in the dust next day,
Faint like a ghost.

"Only a man lived there by himself,
Had a small blacksmith shop in the back yard;
Neighbors who watched him said he worked hard --
Was hoarding up pelf.

"They found him, one morning, dead by his door --
Coroner came and folks hurried in,
Ransacked the cupboard ('twas neat as a pin),
Tore up the floor.

"Nothing but paper there -- wasn't it funny?
Paper with writin' in uneven lines
Lookin' like poetry. -- There were no signs
He'd ever had money.

"But there was a boy who claimed to have seen
A horse with great wings mounting into the sky;
And his father whipped him for telling a lie --
Which I thought was mean --

"For I found in the shop a small silver shoe
That fitted a track near the old hitching post,
And I found a queer feather, so probably most
Of his story was true."





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