The old canal, from bank to bank,
Is filled with reeds and rushes rank;
And down this lane of living green
March memories of what has been.

The painted barges came from town,
And busy life flowed up and down;
But there is nothing left to show
Where those old barges used to go.

Progress is always marching on;
The old canal is dead and gone,
But still we seem to hear it say:
“I, too, was progress – yesterday.”

From “The Old Canal”
by Reginald Arkell (1938)