TOM, if they loved thee best who called thee Tom, What else may all men call thee, seeing thus bright Even yet the laughing and the weeping light That still thy kind old eyes are kindled from? Small care was thine to assail and overcome Time and his child Oblivion: yet of right Thy name has part with names of lordlier might For English love and homely sense of home, Whose fragrance keeps thy small sweet bay-leaf young And gives it place aloft among thy peers Whence many a wreath once higher strong Time has hurled: And this thy praise is sweet on Shakespeare's tongue -- 'O good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world!' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN EPITAPH ON A ROBIN REDBEAST by SAMUEL ROGERS MY SHADOW by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON A PRAYER, LIVING AND DYING by AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 39. AL-HAFIZ by EDWIN ARNOLD AN AUTUMNAL THOUGHT, 1795 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE FORMER LIFE by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE LINES WRITTEN AT GENEVA by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |