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.
Late in a wilderness, I shared his mess,
For he had hardships seen,
And I a wanderer has been,
He was my bosom friend, and I was his.
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.
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.
By – Henry David Thoreau
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