LONG shalt thou flourish, Windsor! bodying forth Chivalric times, and long shall live around Thy Castle -- the old oaks of British birth, Whose knarled roots, tenacious and profound, As with a lion's talons grasp the ground. But should thy towers in ivied ruin rot, There's one, thine inmate once, whose strain renowned Would interdict thy name to be forgot; For Chaucer loved thy bowers and trode this very spot. Chaucer! our Helicon's first fountain-stream, Our morning star of song -- that led the way To welcome the long-after coming beam Of Spenser's light and Shakspeare's perfect day. Old England's fathers live in Chaucer's lay, As if they ne'er had died. He grouped and drew Their likeness with a spirit of life so gay, That still they live and breathe in Fancy's view, Fresh beings fraught with truth's imperishable hue. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A RED, RED ROSE by ROBERT BURNS ARMS AND THE BOY by WILFRED OWEN SIBLINGS OF A GRAYER SKY by NAVEED ALAM THE WANDERING JEW by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER HIDDEN JOYS by SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD THE IDEAL FOUND by ANNE CHARLOTTE LYNCH BOTTA |