
Listen to this excerpt from a wonderful poem called “The Path of the Calf” by Samuel Foss:
One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home as good calves should.
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do…
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way,
And then a wise bell-wether sheep
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him too
As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o’re hill and glade
Through those old woods a path was made.
And thus, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare. ..
A thousand men were led
By a calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way
And lost one hundred years each day.
For thus such reverence is lent
To well established precedent.
Foss died in 1911. Not all insights are new ones.
