Massive and grand are those old houses know, Whose rails, too high for children's hands to reach, Lend yet the ready help of friends to each In age, to ease his hard ascent and slow. Like brooks', their broad mahogany's soft flow; Like that of rivers the proud sweep of them, Holy because they knew the garments' hem Of some we loved and lost in Long Ago.... Ah, God! what is to soothe us -- now our tears Are softly fall'n and Laughter lets no more Her silver lyric float from floor to floor -- Who climb these silent stairways with the years For mute companions, and, when those have passed, But stagger blindly down them at the last! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVOY: 2. TO MY MOTHER by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON DAY AND NIGHT SONGS by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM BOTHWELL: PART 1 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN UNSOPHISTICATED WISHES, BY MISS JEMINA INGOLDSBY, AGED 15 by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM BRIEF LIFE by KATHARINE LEE BATES EVENING by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE MID-APRIL IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY |