YOU gave me my work to do, you brought and set it before me; I laughed with the laughter of one, seeing, who understands; I bent to the task elate, zeal like a mantle o'er me -- @3Why did you break my wrists and shatter the strength of my hands?@1 You gave me a song to sing, and mine the joy of the bringing Strands of Heaven, and sea and earth strung to the perfect note. Finished, glorious, whole, I raised my head for its singing -- @3Why did you seal my lips and crush the song in my throat?@1 The work I was fain to do -- it rusts in the drift of the sands; The song I was fain to sing is waste for the winds to float. @3Why did you break my wrists and shatter the strength of my hands?@1 @3Why did you seal my lips and crush the song in my throat?@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARY DONNELLY by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM A VALEDICTION: OF WEEPING by JOHN DONNE PANDOSTO, THE TRIUMPH OF TIME: IN PRAISE OF HIS BEST-BELOVED FAWNIA by ROBERT GREENE SEVEN TIMES FOUR [ - MATERNITY] by JEAN INGELOW THREE THROWS AND ONE by JANE BARLOW FOR NOEL (WHERE A GATE SWINGS EITHER WAY) by BEULAH ALLYNE BELL |