NOW the joys of the road are chiefly these: <br />A crimson touch on the hard-wood trees; <br /> <br />A vagrant's morning wide and blue, <br />In early fall, when the wind walks too; <br /> <br />A shadowy highway cool and brown, <br />Alluring up and enticing down <br /> <br />From rippled water to dappled swamp, <br />From purple glory to scarlet pomp; <br /> <br />The outward eye, the quiet will, <br />And the striding heart from hill to hill; <br /> <br />The tempter apple over the fence; <br />The cobweb bloom on the yellow quince; <br /> <br />The palish asters along the wood,- <br />A lyric touch of solitude; <br /> <br />An open hand, an easy shoe, <br />And a hope to make the day go through,- <br /> <br />Another to sleep with, and a third <br />To wake me up at the voice of a bird; <br /> <br />A scrap of gossip at the ferry; <br />A comrade neither glum nor merry, <br /> <br />Who never defers and never demands, <br />But, smiling, takes the world in his hands,- <br /> <br />Seeing it good as when God first saw <br />And gave it the weight of his will for law. <br /> <br />And oh, the joy that is never won, <br />But follows and follows the journeying sun, <br /> <br />By marsh and tide, by meadow and stream, <br />A will-o'-the-wind, a light-o'-dream, <br /> <br />The racy smell of the forest loam, <br />When the stealthy sad-heart leaves go home; <br /> <br />The broad gold wake of the afternoon; <br />The silent fleck of the cold new moon; <br /> <br />The sound of the hollow sea's release <br />From stormy tumult to starry peace; <br /> <br />With only another league to wend; <br />And two brown arms at the journey's end! <br /> <br />These are the joys of the open road- <br />For him who travels without a load.<br /><br />Bliss William Carman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-joys-of-the-road/
