Explore "The Respectable Folks" by Henry David Thoreau on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The respectable folks, -- / Where dwell they?
They whisper in the oaks, / And they sigh in the hay;
Summer and winter, night and day, / Out on the meadow, there dwell they.
They never die, / Nor snivel, nor cry, / Nor ask our pity / With a wet eye.
A sound estate they ever mend, / To every asker readily lend;
To the ocean wealth, / To the meadow health, / To Time his length, / To the rocks strength, / To the stars light, / To the weary night, / To the busy day, / To the idle play;
And so their good cheer never ends, / For all are their debtors, and all their friends.