@3We spend our lives in learning pilotage, And grow good steersmen when the vessel's crank!@1 Gap-toothed he spake, and with a tottering shank Sidled to gain the sunny bench of Age. It is the sentence which completes that stage; A testament of wisdom reading blank. The seniors of the race, on their last plank, Pass mumbling it as nature's final page. These, bent by such experience, are the band Who captain young enthusiasts to maintain What things we view, and Earth's decree withstand, Lest dreaded Change, long dammed by dull decay, Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain, And ancients musical at close of day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER by JOHN CROWE RANSOM THE UNSUNG HEROES by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE LAST CHANTEY by RUDYARD KIPLING DEEDS OF VALOR AT SANTIAGO by CLINTON SCOLLARD LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 4. BALLYTULLAGH by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 50. AL-BAHITH by EDWIN ARNOLD |