No, I had set no prohibiting sign,

And yes, my land was hardly fenced.

Nevertheless the land was mine:

I was being trespassed on and against.

Whoever the surly freedom took

Of such an unaccountable stay

Busying by my woods and brook

Gave me strangely restless day.

He might be opening leaves of stone,

The picture-book of the trilobite,

For which the region round was known,

And in which there was little property right.

’Twas not the value I stood to lose

In specimen crab in specimen rock,

But his ignoring what was whose

That made me look again at the clock.

Then came his little acknowledgment:

He asked for a drink at the kitchen door,

An errand he may have had to invent,

But it made my property mine once more.