LONG shalt thou flourish, Windsor! bodying forth Chivalric times, and long shall live around Thy Castle -- the old oaks of British birth, Whose knarled roots, tenacious and profound, As with a lion's talons grasp the ground. But should thy towers in ivied ruin rot, There's one, thine inmate once, whose strain renowned Would interdict thy name to be forgot; For Chaucer loved thy bowers and trode this very spot. Chaucer! our Helicon's first fountain-stream, Our morning star of song -- that led the way To welcome the long-after coming beam Of Spenser's light and Shakspeare's perfect day. Old England's fathers live in Chaucer's lay, As if they ne'er had died. He grouped and drew Their likeness with a spirit of life so gay, That still they live and breathe in Fancy's view, Fresh beings fraught with truth's imperishable hue. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: GEORGE GRAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MINERVA JONES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS AN EXPATIATION ON THE COMBINING OF WEATHERS AT THIRTY .... by HAYDEN CARRUTH THEY ACCUSE ME OF NOT TALKING by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE HILL ABOVE THE MINE by MALCOLM COWLEY LET ME NOT HATE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE RIVALS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |