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William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

The Road to Babylon

“HOW far is it to Babylon?

—Threescore miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.”

And while nurse hummed the old, old rhyme,

Tucking him in at evening time,

He dreamed how when he grew a man

And travelled free, as big men can,

He’d slip out through the garden gate

To roads where high adventures wait

And find the way to Babylon,

Babylon, far Babylon,

All silver-towered in the sun!

He’s travelled free, a man with men;

(Bitter the scores of miles and ten!)

And now face down by Babylon’s wall

He sleeps, nor any more at all

By morning, noon or candle-light

Or in the wistful summer night

To his own garden gate he’ll come.

—Young feet that fretted so to roam

Have missed the road returning home.

Scribner’s Magazine