WHETHER the beginnings of things notable Have in them anything worth noting. Whether an acorn's worth the thinking of Or eagle's egg suggests the sweep of wings in the clear blue, Is just an idle question. There's this: If you should hold the acorn 'twixt your fingers, You'll conjure up an oak maybe, A great gnarled trunk, criss-crossed and twisting branches And quivering of leaves. Or if the egg lies in the hollow of your hand, And the possessor says, "It is an eagle's." You'll deem you're looking up into high heaven, And see, far, far above you, Leisurely circling, now amongst the clouds, now against the sun, A careless span of pinions; You'll see, maybe, in short, such oaks and eagle-flights As never were, save in an idler's dream. But then again: An acorn's just an acorn, food for swine, and never (The chances are so great, so very great against it), Never will become a tempest-breasting oak. And then this eagle's egg, It's blown and empty of its contents, And just reposes on its cotton wool In a collector's box. So with these sketches: Maybe you'll let them trick you into dreaming A hundred masterpieces: Halls full of never-to-be-equalled brush work: Or let the music of a witching name beguile you To the remembrance of a master's sonnets. Or you may say, with just a tilting of the nose towards heaven: "The thing's amiss—it's worthless, We've seen a daub as good Hang flapping unobserved in such a High Street, Decked with the faded, weather-beaten effigy Of so-and-so of noble memory— The thing's amiss, it's worthless." And yet—it's just a question. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT BETHLEHEM: 3. TO HIS MOTHER by JOHN BANISTER TABB DRUG STORE by JOHN VAN ALSTYN WEAVER SIX TOWN ECLOGUES: SATURDAY; THE SMALL-POX by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU RECOMPENSE by DOROTHY MOORE ALFORD SECTION GANG: DAYBREAK by NORMAN BOLKER |