Classic Poem

They gave him health to know the fields,
And try the mountain's girth,
And the bright love a young life yields,
Back to the splendid earth.

They gave a singing heart that knows
How the dumb hours are blest;
And hope they gave, that springs and grows
Beside that in the breast.

They gave—those far, ancestral friends
That shaped the soul of him—
Passion for every road that bends
Over the hilltops dim.

All these; but how such gifts to guard,
Not one command gave they,
Save to work on both late and hard
And use them every day.

And health and love and hope and song
Rose in him wild and free,
While up the hilltop highways long
His thought roamed pleasantly.