BESIDE that milestone where the level sun, Nigh unto setting, sheds his last, low rays On word and work irrevocably done, Life's blending threads of good and ill outspun, I hear, O friends! your words of cheer and praise, Half doubtful if myself or otherwise. Like him, who, in the old Arabian joke, A beggar slept and crowned Caliph woke. Thanks not the less. With not unglad surprise I see my life-work through your partial eyes; Assured, in giving to my home-taught songs A higher value than of right belongs, You do but read between the written lines The finer grace of unfulfilled designs. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT BETHLEHEM: 3. TO HIS MOTHER by JOHN BANISTER TABB ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE EXILE by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA CHORUS OF THE CLOUD-MAIDEN: ANTISTROPHE, FR. THE CLOUDS by ARISTOPHANES PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 93. AL-NOOR by EDWIN ARNOLD A SERIOUS REFLECTION ON HUMAN LIFE, SELECTION by HENRY BAKER |