The Calf Path, by Sam Walter Foss (1896)

I came across this poem more than a year ago, and it has lodged in my mind since. It tells us how we tend to stick to the old and the familiar, and how we tend to rest in comatose-like state in our comfort zone despite all indications that we should get out of it. Possibly an illustration of stare decisis, too! You can find it at http://www.worksimp.com/newsletter/calfpath.pdf Enjoy!

One day through the primeval wood

A calf walked home as good calves should;

But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,

And I infer the calf is dead.

But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day

By a lone dog that passed that way;

And then a wise bell–wether sheep

Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,

And drew the flock behind him, too,

As good bell–wethers always do.

And from that day, o’er hill and glade,

Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,

And dodged and turned and bent about,

And uttered words of righteous wrath

Because ’twas such a crooked path!

But still they followed – do not laugh -

The first migrations of that calf,

This forest path became a lane

That bent and turned and turned again;

This crooked lane became a road,

Where many a poor horse with his load

Toiled on beneath the burning sun,

And traveled some three miles in one

And thus a century and a half

They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,

The road became a village street;

And this, before men were aware,

A city’s crowded thoroughfare.

And soon the central street was this

Of a renowned metropolis;

And men two centuries and a half

Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

A hundred thousand men were led

By one calf near three centuries dead.

For men are prone to go it blind

Along the calf-paths of the mind,

And work away from sun to sun

To do what other men have done.

They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back,

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,

Along which all their lives they move;

Ah, many things this tale might teach -

But I am not ordained to preach!

Posted by

Elijah Lim