YET are they here the same unbroken knot Of human Beings, in the self-same spot! Men, women, children, yea the frame Of the whole spectacle the same! Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light, Now deep and red, the colouring of night; That on their Gipsy-faces falls, Their bed of straw and blanket-walls. -- Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours are gone, while I Have been a traveller under open sky, Much witnessing of change and cheer, Yet as I left I find them here! The weary Sun betook himself to rest; -- Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west, Outshining like a visible God The glorious path in which he trod. And now, ascending, after one dark hour And one night's diminution of her power, Behold the mighty Moon! this way She looks as if at them -- but they Regard not her: -- oh better wrong and strife Better vain deeds or evil than such life! The silent Heavens have goings on; The stars have tasks - but these have none. [or, By nature transient than this torpid life; Life which the very stars reprove As on their silent tasks they move! Yet, witness all that stirs in heaven or earth! In scorn I speak not; -- they are what their birth And breeding suffer them to be; Wild outcasts of society! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRISONED IN WINDSOR, HE RECOUNTETH HIS PLEASURE THERE PASSED by HENRY HOWARD THE CAPTAIN; A LEGEND OF THE NAVY by ALFRED TENNYSON GEORGE LEVISON OR, THE SCHOOLFELLOWS by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE MODERN TIPPLING PHILOSOPHERS by JAMES HAY BEATTIE HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 12 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH PRAYER FOR AMERICA by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN CRADLE SONG by PAULINE FRANCES CAMP TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. EXCEPT THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE by EDWARD CARPENTER |