THE LIVING LANGUAGE
Sing a song of little words, homely parts of speech,
Phrases children use at play, songs that mothers teach,—
Who would think when Rome was new, they used that language then—
Table, chair and family, map and chart and pen?
Sing a song of stately ways, camp and square and street,
Consuls, tribunes, governors, the legion’s myriad feet,
If those wise men so long ago had not known what to say,
All they gave us readymade we should not have to-day.