Let’s do another poem today. This one is from 1897, and the only attribution is to “Chicago Inter Ocean”.
It’s not specifically about going barefoot, but makes the loss of going barefoot part of the lament of the passing of those younger days.
When I Was a Barefoot Rover
Oh, the spoil and greed in the world of men
And the strife that lives forever,
Are lost in the ways and dear old days
That the years can never sever.
I’d pass the haunts and marts of men,
And all its joys, moreover,
To live and dream one boyish dream
When I was a barefoot rover.The shady lane, by the rip’ning grain,
And the meadows again to wander;
The willow’d rill beyond the hill,
To the pickerel pond “down yonder.”
To lie in the cool of the shade and dream
My youthful dreams all over,
I’d give all the world has doled to me
To be a barefoot rover.The bees and birds, the lowing herds,
The muddy cattle wallow:
The hollow stump where squirrels slunk
And the nuts in “chipmunk hollow;”
The faint, sweet smell from the ferny dell
Where the wild flow’rs used to hover,
And the woods, and brooks, and secret nooks
Were mine—a barefoot rover.The chirp of birds, the lowing herds,
And the bumble bees’ dull droning
Is music wall’d from the surging throng
With its never ceasing moaning.
And I’d pass the haunts and marts of men,
And its arts and joys, moreover,
to lie and dream one boyish dream
When I was a barefoot rover.
[…] de nombreux poèmes célèbrent les joies d’une enfance déchaussée : Barefoot (1893), When I was a barefoot rover (1897), Goin’ Barefoot (1905), Barefoot Days (1907), Barefoot Days (1926). Le plus connu de […]