Songs Of The Road

Chapter 6: FOREWORD

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About This Book

The collection gathers poems that range from narrative ballads and humorous monologues to formal hymns and short lyrical pieces. Several verses sketch travellers, horses, and convivial street scenes with plainspoken wit, while others voice patriotic and imperial sentiment in hymn-like form. A distinct section presents philosophical reflections on hope, faith, compensation, and the limits of mind and matter. Short miscellaneous lyrics touch on love, the sea, aging, creativity, and nighttime thought, blending irony and earnestness in straightforward, occasionally satirical language.

FOREWORD

     If it were not for the hillocks
            You'd think little of the hills;
     The rivers would seem tiny
            If it were not for the rills.
     If you never saw the brushwood
            You would under-rate the trees;
     And so you see the purpose
            Of such little rhymes as these.

     Crowborough

     1911