I Knew A Man By Sight

Henry David Thoreau 1817 (Concord) – 1862 (Concord)



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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

48 sec read
306

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBX CCDDE FFEEX GGHHX XXXXX IIJJX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 821
Words 163
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. more…

All Henry David Thoreau poems | Henry David Thoreau Books

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    "I Knew A Man By Sight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/17328/i-knew-a-man-by-sight>.

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