In Egypt--Illinois - A poem by A. A. B. Cavaness

In Egypt^___Illinois

TO MILO.
IT was down at old Cairo^___not on the Nile^___
   When very young fellows were we,
Unwearied with marching full many a mile
   From the country they call "Cherokee."

And the zephyrs that fanned us in evenings fair
   Were hardly more careless than we,
As we dreamily loafed through the dirty old square,
   And thought of the things that might be.

Sometimes to the thrummings of the soft guitar^___
   Hid under a shadowy tree^___
There struggled within us a different war
   Than the fighting for our dear country.

Oh, the fingers were white and they flashed a fine light,
   And was it much wonder that we^___
Of sensitive nature^___succumbed to the sight,
   And out of the shade of the tree
   Were tempted incontinently.

Now that was a good while ago, old friend,
   When fountains of wisdom were we^___
   A condition, not theory,
   When the down that later is hair
   Gives a hint of the razor's despair^___
And much have we found to condemn or commend
   Since hid by the shade of the tree
   We listened to sweet melody.

From the old to the new your dreams have come true^___
   With light through the loveliest tree
   That ever on earth may be;
Through prisms of love your visions you prove,
   And in music of childish glee;
   But only in memory
From the new to the old I return to the gold
   That showered through moonlight and tree;
And I think to be young were better than old
   A-listening to hope's melody-
   And still in the shade of the tree.

^__A. A. B. Cavaness.

Poems by Two Brothers
A. A. B. Cavaness & J. M. Cavaness
(Chetopa: J. M. Cavaness and Son. 1896)
Pages 48-49

In Egypt___Illinois

In Egypt^___Illinois