I Knew A Man By Sight

I knew a man by sight,       A blameless wight,   Who, for a year or more,   Had daily passed my door,

Yet converse none had had with him.   I met him in a lane,       Him and his cane,   About three miles from home,   Where I had chanced to roam,

And volumes stared at him, and he at me.   In a more distant place       I glimpsed his face,   And bowed instinctively;   Starting he bowed to me,

Bowed simultaneously, and passed along.   Next, in a foreign land       I grasped his hand,   And had a social chat,   About this thing and that,

As I had known him well a thousand years.   Late in a wilderness       I shared his mess,   For he had hardships seen,   And I a wanderer been;

He was my bosom friend, and I was his.   And as, methinks, shall all,       Both great and small,   That ever lived on earth,   Early or late their birth,

Stranger and foe, one day each other know.