Your living glass is this unpolished stone That looks at you with unappraising eyes. Only the smile is different. It is wise As things inanimate are wise, from having grown In fire and ice ten thousand years alone. You will turn shrewd, change with the volatile skies, Cheapen yourself, snatch at the moment's prize . . . Knowing all this, its smile remains its own. Here where the light is almost leaping through, The bust is real as you will never be. You will grow harder than this marble, true To nothing long, not even your effigy; While all the impulsive radiance that was you, Imprisoned in the stone, will still be free. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HURRAHING IN HARVEST by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 82. HOARDED JOY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI LORD EXMOUTH'S VICTORY AT ALGIERS, 1816 by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD QUILCA HOUSE TO THE DEAN by HENRY BROOKE LYNTON VERSES: 4. LYNTON TO PORLOCK (EXMOOR) by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN EPITAPH ON ONE DROWNED IN THE SNOW by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |