Explore "Our Boyhood Haunts" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Ho! I'm going back to where / We were youngsters. -- Meet me there, / Dear old barefoot chum, and we / Will be as we used to be, -- / Lawless rangers up and down / The old creek beyond the town -- / Little sunburnt gods at play, / Just as in that far-away: -- / Water nymphs, all unafraid, / Shall smile at us from the brink / Of the old millrace and wade / Tow'rd us as we kneeling drink / At the spring our boyhood knew, / Pure and clear as morning-dew:
And, as we are rising there, / Doubly dow'rd to hear and see, / We shall thus be made aware / Of an eerie piping, heard / High above the happy bird / In the hazel: And then we, / Just across the creek, shall see / (Hah! the goaty rascal! ) Pan / Hoof it o'er the sloping green, / Mad with his own melody, / Aye, and (bless the beasty man! ) / Stamping from the grassy soil / Bruised scents of _fleur-de-lis_, / Boneset, mint and pennyroyal.