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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Percy Addleshaw (‘Hemingway’) (1866–1916)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

The Happy Wanderer

Percy Addleshaw (‘Hemingway’) (1866–1916)

HE is the happy wanderer who goes

Singing upon his way, with eyes awake

To every scene, with ears alert to take

The sweetness of all sounds, who loves and knows

The secrets of the highway, holds the rose

Is fairer for the wounds the briars make;

He welcomes rain that he his thirst may slake,

The sun because it dries his dripping clothes:

Treasures experience beyond all store,

Careless if pain or pleasure he shall win,

So that his knowledge widen more and more:

Ready each hour to worship or to sin,

Until tired, wise, content, he halts before

The sign o’ The Grave, a cool and quiet inn.