The blade of grass lifts clod beyond its weight, The tree strives heavily with wind and rain; Each first-drawn breath comes to its birth with pain; This is the law that rules in every state, Which nature and the beast do not debate: But man resists and spends his years in vain Unfruitful search for days that bear no chain. Yet never finds their footprints till too late. One marvels that all nature, and the brute That has no wisdom, still does not refuse The strife. They meet it daily and are mute, While man his pains of growth evade, abuse -- Yet, so lifts up the blade, and sinks the root To make the fibered wood which builders use. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLEEP by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH GEORGE CRABBE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 3. AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS HESPERIDES by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH REMINISCENCE by DOROTHY ALLISON MY DELIGHT by GAMALIEL BRADFORD MY ANGEL by JONATHAN HENDERSON BROOKS THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE CANTICLE OF LOVE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |