Good Heart, that ownest all! I ask a modest boon and small: Not of lands and towns the gift, -- Too large a load for me to lift, -- But for one proper creature, Which geographic eye, Sweeping the map of Western earth, Or the Atlantic coast, from Maine To Powhatan's domain, Could not descry. Is 't much to ask in all thy huge creation, So trivial a part, -- A solitary heart? Yet count me not of spirit mean, Or mine a mean demand, For 't is the concentration And worth of all the land, The sister of the sea, The daughter of the strand, Composed of air and light, And of the swart earth-might. So little to thy poet's prayer Thy large bounty well can spare. And yet I think, if she were gone, The world were better left alone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LETHE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE FLOATING MORMON by KAREN SWENSON CITY VIGNETTE: DAWN by SARA TEASDALE ON A VIRTUOUS YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN THAT DIED SUDDENLY by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 7. AFTER THE FAIR by THOMAS HARDY ON LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE BUNKER HILL MOMUMENT by JOHN PIERPONT AN HYMN OF HEAVENLY BEAUTY by EDMUND SPENSER AN ATHENIAN GARDEN by TRUMBULL STICKNEY VERSES, RESPECTFULLY & AFFECTIONALLY INSCRIBED TO PROFESSIONAL FRIEND by BERNARD BARTON |