WILD nature not by kindness won, because So seldom wooed that way; -- thou melodist, That singest only the eternal songs, And changeless through the ages, conquerest Time; Thou white-wing'd joy, skimming the white-lipp'd sea; Thou antlered forest lord: nor ye alone -- The eminent and splendid ones of Earth -- But creatures nearer to Man's daily walk; Thou timorous fugitive, obscurely housed In populous labyrinth under hillock and holm; Thou noble hound, with thy immortal gift Of loving whom thou servest; dear allies, Friends, and co-heritors of Life with me; What Power devised and fashioned you I know not; I know not, for my faith hath failed me sore; But this I know: @3whatever natural rights Be mine, are yours no less, by native dower:@1 If none entitled is to bind @3me@1 down, And rend, and mar, and rack, and break, and flay me, None hath a title so to ravage @3you,@1 Saving such title as defames alike Him that bestows and him that uses it. This is the thing I know and doubt not of; And this none taught me, but I drank it deep From the pure well-spring of my mother's breasts, Nor shall it die within me till I die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BIRTHDAY SONG by SIDNEY LANIER TEARS IN SLEEP by LOUISE BOGAN AN ODE TO THE FRAMERS OF THE FRAME BILL by GEORGE GORDON BYRON IMPRESSION by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE A CELEBRATION OF CHARIS: 4. HER TRIUMPH by BEN JONSON |