INGLORIOUS friend! most confident I am Thy life is one of very little ease; Albeit men mock thee with their similes And prate of being "happy as a clam!" What though thy shell protects thy fragile head From the sharp bailiffs of the briny sea? Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee, While rakes are free to desecrate thy bed, And bear thee off, -- as foemen take their spoil, -- Far from thy friends and family to roam; Forced, like a Hessian, from thy native home, To meet destruction in a foreign broil! Though thou art tender, yet thy humble bard Declares, O clam! thy case is shocking hard! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 54 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE KEARSARGE (1894) by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 9 by ALFRED TENNYSON OUR WEAKNESS by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS A SONNET. PLATONIC LOVE by PHILIP AYRES TO A SPIRIT (2) by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD HAYES: HESPERUS SPEAKS by THOMAS CAMPION ON THE FRONTISPIECE OF ISAACSONS CHRONOLOGIE EXPLAINED (1) by RICHARD CRASHAW |