Sam Walter Foss

Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead;
They followed still his read more

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead;
They followed still his crooked way
And lost a hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well established precedent.

Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are;
And while the ship read more

Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are;
And while the ship right onward leaps,
Uplift it from the exhaustless deeps.
Parch not your life with dry despair;
The stream of hope flow everywhere--
So under every sky and star,
Just drop your bucket where you are.

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a read more

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
. . . .
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like read more

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran,--
But let me live by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.