I Go My Gait
I go my gait, and if my way
Is cheered by song and roundelay,
Or if I bear upon my road,
Like Issachar, a double load,
I sing and bear as best I may.
But lo a rondeau! Can I say,
While halting thus my toll to pay
Before a stile now a la mode,
I go my gate?
Ah truly; if for once I stray
Into the treadmill,-’tis in play.
I will not own its narrow code,
It shall not be my cramped abode.
Free of the fields, in open day
I go my gait!
Emily Pfeiffer.