Definition of Out Of Doors

  I climbed to the top of a mountain one day
      To see the sun setting in glory,
  And I thought, as I looked at his vanishing ray,
      Of a perfectly splendid story.

  'Twas about an old man and the ass he bestrode
      Till the strength of the beast was o'ertested;
  Then the man would carry him miles on the road
      Till Neddy was pretty well rested.

  The moon rising solemnly over the crest
      Of the hills to the east of my station
  Displayed her broad disk to the darkening west
      Like a visible new creation.

  And I thought of a joke (and I laughed till I cried)
      Of an idle young woman who tarried
  About a church-door for a look at the bride,
      Although 'twas herself that was married.

  To poets all Nature is pregnant with grand
      Ideas -- with thought and emotion.
  I pity the dunces who don't understand
      The speech of earth, heaven and ocean.

Stromboli Smith