Strange that the city thoroughfare, <br /> Noisy and bustling all the day, <br />Should with the night renounce its care, <br /> And lend itself to children's play! <br /> <br />Oh, girls are girls, and boys are boys, <br /> And have been so since Abel's birth, <br />And shall be so till dolls and toys <br /> Are with the children swept from earth. <br /> <br />The self-same sport that crowns the day <br /> Of many a Syrian shepherd's son, <br />Beguiles the little lads at play <br /> By night in stately Babylon. <br /> <br />I hear their voices in the street, <br /> Yet 't is so different now from then! <br />Come, brother! from your winding-sheet, <br /> And let us two be boys again!<br /><br />Eugene Field<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hi-spy/
