We act in crises not as one who dons A judge's robe and sits to praise or blame With walnut gavel, before high window-frame, Beside a Justice-and-her-scales in bronze; We act in crises not by pros and cons Of volumes in brown calfskin still the same; But, like the birds and beasts from which we came, By the long trend of character -- the @3fons,@1 @3Fons et origo@1 -- fountainhead and source -- Of deeper conduct, whether in unleashed hound That tears the fleeting stag unto the ground, Or thrush in battle for its fledgeling's corse, Or boy who sees the cracked dam, hears a sound, And down the peopled valley spurs his horse. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SWITZERLAND AND ITALY by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES TO THE LARK by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD PSALM 9. CONFITEBOR TIBI by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE BAB-LOCK-HYTHE by LAURENCE BINYON THE GUERRILLA by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD WORDS FOR THE 'HALLELUJAH CHORUS' by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE CANTICLE OF LOVE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |