Having inherited a vigorous mind From my old fathers, I must nourish dreams And leave a woman and a man behind As vigorous of mind, and yet it seems Life scarce can cast a fragrance on the wind, Scarce spread a glory to the morning beams, But the torn petals strew the garden plot; And there's but common greenness after that. And what if my descendants lose the flower Through natural declension of the soul, Through too much business with the passing hour, Through too much play, or marriage with a fool? May this laborious stair and this stark tower Become a roofless min that the owl May build in the cracked masonry and cry Her desolation to the desolate sky. The primum Mobile that fashioned us Has made the very owls in circles move; And I, that count myself most prosperous, Seeing that love and friendship are enough, For an old neighbour's friendship chose the house And decked and altered it for a girl's love, And know whatever flourish and decline These stones remain their monument and mine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HERETIC: 1. BLASPHEMY by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS THE SCRIBE by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE RIGHT MUST WIN by FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER THE FAIR SINGER by ANDREW MARVELL LAUS VENERIS (A PICTURE BY BURNE-JONES) by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON |