The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-12-01
THEWALL
sY Or. FRANK cRANss
Copyright. 1915, By Frank Crane)

mere Is wall about my garden,
/ that | want to keep people out. nor
that / object to their looking in: b
love wall for its spiritual Significan
The wall is of stone. and high.
cover it. Fruits sprawl upon il. Flo.
crouch at its feet.
1t is symbol of knowledge, bee
! 1t. marks the bounds of my piec
earth, with which am familiar, SEPT
ing it from the wide. wide earth W
| can never know. For the essenti;
comfortable knowledge is not to
what you know, but to know where
line is between what you know and \
you don't know.
Thus my wall is to me certaI
Within II | feel like God in His VI
n cognizant master.
1t is my defense against the 4
wheming mystery all around 1t
me what creed is 10 a believer, a !
shelter against the infinite.
1t is to my soul what covers are
book. Who could endure a book wit
beginning or end?
Human beings want home. TIL
stinct of our remote ancestors, whic
them to crawl back into their cave
at night. fingers in our blood 1t is
to venture forth, to travel and
strange ports; it is we'll to stand a
mountain and view vast distances,
to the shore and feel the ocean that
Io,rapJ bpY.iyDpc 70 poga I'm ~ ~
tricate galaXies and burning s
worlds. but afterward we must r,
10 our little square of earth; we
have walls and a roof lest we peri
consequences.
| know the sense Of property is en-
cral. \ while ago ! was unborn
owned nothing little while and |
go again into nothingneSS and own
ing but life itself is but a passing
and life functions in property.
those who boast Of possessing M
are tenacious Of their opinions and
high fences around their ego.
Within my wall ! play the XII
am the darling Of special privilege.
can invade except | open the doc
AatterS my vanity. All have their
ties, hot or cold, offensive or defe
of person or Of possession; and
the least Objectionable is the smu
that comes 10 him who pull rad
from his own soil and Rlancing a
sees the wall beyond which innumd
tadiSheS are no matter to him.
There are daisies in the fields
there are too many of them. II
Uall thet r1el,ca my rarGan daisies
Also my marigOlds are more 2olde
hcliotrope more odorous, my rose
as much dearer to me than all po
rose bushes, as my own children
closer than the Swarms of China.
Herein. too is liberty For RED
ertv exists not i'm the absence but
presence Of limitations. No plac
You SO bound as on the boundles
Within my wall is true anarchy.
30 as / please. ! can pull up or tr
down all these plants if | choose.
dance. or sing, or sit down, or smo
make mud pies. Who cares? Tn
the wall, II means to me license
my inSanlties.
There IS no liberty that counts q
liberty TO act the fool. TO do thing
ple do not expect you To do. On
be wise and proper and good anyY
ONLY within his walls can he be deli
" unwise. hilariously inconsistent
There is a boy | should never
known had it not been for my wall
is raqgedy boy who climbs owe
steals my apples. They are greet
puckery, yet he likes them more
the ripe red ones over in the oper
ture. which he is free 70 take; but
the wall that gives the exquisite
of outlawry to mine. ! pretend n
see him: he thinks he is fooling me
all the while he tickles me- Tho
nothing so charming as TO give one
ure and have him think you are h
emv. So both the boy and have
reptitious fun that the unwalled G.
know.
\ wall. a wall around my garden
And hedge me in from the discona
hills;
Give me but one Of all the mou
riIs.
Enough Of ocean in its voice ] hea
SAINT