Go back beyond the electric light, The radio and the works of steam, And look on England dark at night Or lit but by a taper's gleam. Go back the last two hundred years And there another nation find, Of primal toils practitioners, And men of self-supporting mind. The sturdy ploughman leading home At eve his horses to the stall; The woodman ill content to roam To towns where never beechunts fall; The shepherd happy with his sheep, The miller busy with his grain, The learned Doctor bent to keep One house and glebe as his domain. Add homely fare and mantling ale; And classic thought on printed page, Nor dream that these shall ever fail— And you have Gray and Gray's good age. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWNFALL OF POLAND [FALL OF WARSAW, 1794] by THOMAS CAMPBELL JONAH'S SONG, FR. MOBY DICK by HERMAN MELVILLE THE LUMINOUS HANDS OF GOD by ELEANOR WARFIELD KENLY BACON GRIEF WAS SENT THEE FOR THY GOOD by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY CHARLES LAMB by PAKENHAM THOMAS BEATTY TO MARIE by JOHN BENNETT (1865-1956) THE STATESMEN by AMBROSE BIERCE THE CEREMONY OF THE PRINTER'S APPRENTICE; A GERMAN MORALITY PLAY by WILLAM BLADES |