| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 655. Then and Now |
| | | By Charles Frederick Johnson |
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| TO me the earth once seemed to be | |
| Most beautiful and fair; | |
| All living creatures were to me, | |
| In wood or air, | |
| But kindred of a freer class; | 5 |
| I thrilled with keenest joy | |
| To find the young quail in the grass:— | |
| I was a boy. | |
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| The robin in the apple-tree, | |
| The brown thrush in the wood, | 10 |
| The meadow larks, all called to me; | |
| I understood: | |
| A sense of union with the whole, | |
| Of love for beast and bird, | |
| Deep chords from man’s ancestral soul, | 15 |
| Each wild note stirred. | |
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| All that is gone, and now I see | |
| A blood-stained earth, where strife, | |
| Unceasing war, and cruelty, | |
| Make room for life; | 20 |
| Each living thing a helpless prey | |
| To sharper tooth or claw, | |
| Ten thousand murders every day | |
| By nature’s law. | |
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| But still old earth its glamour casts | 25 |
| O’er the clear eyes of youth, | |
| And still the old illusion lasts | |
| In spite of truth; | |
| For now I find my boy can see | |
| The earth I used to know; | 30 |
| He sees it as it seemed to me | |
| So long ago. | |
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| Poor little chap! Sometimes I think | |
| I ’ll tell him how he ’s fooled, | |
| But when I see his eyes, I shrink, | 35 |
| My purpose cooled: | |
| Why should I cloud his soul with doubt, | |
| Or youth’s illusions mar? | |
| Too soon, alas, he will find out | |
| That life is war. | 40 |
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