Hi-Spy

Strange that the city thoroughfare,
   Noisy and bustling all the day,
Should with the night renounce its care
   And lend itself to children's play!

Oh, girls are girls, and boys are boys,
   And have been so since Abel's birth,
And shall be so till dolls and toys
   Are with the children swept from earth.

The self-same sport that crowns the day
   Of many a Syrian shepherd's son,
Beguiles the little lads at play
   By night in stately Babylon.

I hear their voices in the street,
   Yet 't is so different now from then!
Come, brother! from your winding-sheet,
   And let us two be boys again!