I hereby swear that to uphold your house I would lay my bones in quick destroying lime Or turn my flesh to timber for all time; Cut down my womanhood; lop off the boughs Of that perpetual ecstasy that grows From the heart's core; condemn it as a crime If it be broader than a beam, or climb Above the stature that your roof allows. I am not the hearthstone nor the cornerstone Within this noble fabric you have builded; Not by my beauty was its cornice gilded; Not on my courage were its arches thrown: My lord, adjudge my strength, and set me where I bear a little more than I can bear. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON EIGHTEEN-DOLLAR TAXI TRIP TO TIZAPAN AND BACK TO CHAPALA by CLARENCE MAJOR ABOU BEN ADHEM by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT THE MOSS ROSE by FRIEDRICH ADOLF KRUMMACHER CRADLE SONG AT TWILIGHT by ALICE MEYNELL THE WHITE COMRADE (AFTER W.H. LEATHAM'S 'THE COMRADE IN WHIRE') by ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM; FROM HER BOY by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |