Born on this date, July 3, 1871, was William Henry Davies, a Welshman, who spent his young life as a self-avowed “tramp”–until he lost his leg in an accident while trying to jump a freight train in Canada. His autobiography was titled The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp. Davies was friends with and/or praised by such well known literary figures as George Bernard Shaw, Hilaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare, and Ezra Pound, but his poetry is mostly forgotten or deemed “unsophisticated”.
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad day light,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.