Classic Poem

The Legend of the Road

The legend of the road,
The long trail of courtesy, the line unbroken, as of each generation of men greeting the next,
The marchbeat of ages in a law of the heart treasured and divulged,
This, with the words of it made life — this with the dream of it ever unfading:
Keep to the right — so it is given, and the law directs

The law of the heart, the law of the furtherance of justice,
The law of planets companioning in space the countless comrade stars,
The law of the dream of need, the law of the self's respect,
The law of the advance of love in the world,
The law of order without law, the law of the dismissal of law:

I have traveled far, it is nowhere withdrawn,
Men may stultify the law, the law never stultifies them, the law is faithful:
The law is the rhythm and the word, the numberer of days.
Against the law stand tyrant and assassin in fury contending:
With one hand the law takes the law from the will of the state and with the other takes the knife from the hand of the destroyer of the state,
To each giving itself.

No untracked wilderness refuses the heart its heritage in this legend:
Keep to the right: the farmer rests upon the fence of his farm and notes that all who pass observe the law of the road
He turns and regards his acred harvest in this law projected
In busy streets of cities, on seas unsubdued, in vastness and littleness the same purpose propelling.
Keep to the right: the law become lore — by it opportunity is an open and equal field:
Right and left is the long long line,
Right and left men greet as they pass,
Right and left is the signword spoken,
Left is right as the stream flows on.English