I. OLD fables are not all a lie That tell of wondrous birth, Of Titan children, father Sky, And mighty mother Earth. Yea, now are walking on the ground Sons of the mingled brood; Yea, now upon the earth are found Such daughters of the Good. Earth-born, my sister, thou art still A daughter of the sky; Oh, climb for ever up the hill Of thy divinity! To thee thy mother Earth is sweet, Her face to thee is fair; But thou, a goddess incomplete, Must climb the starry stair. II. Wouldst thou the holy hill ascend, Wouldst see the Father's face? To all his other children bend, And take the lowest place. Be like a cottage on a moor, A covert from the wind, With burning fire and open door, And welcome free and kind. Thus humbly doing on the earth The things the earthly scorn, Thou shalt declare the lofty birth Of all the lowly born. III. Be then thy sacred womanhood A sign upon thee set, A second baptism—understood— For what thou must be yet. For, cause and end of all thy strife, And unrest as thou art, Still stings thee to a higher life The Father at thy heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SUGGESTED BY THE COVER OF A VOLUME OF KEATS'S POEMS by AMY LOWELL DISCORDANTS: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN ZION, OR THE CITY OF GOD by JOHN NEWTON THE ENCHANTMENT by THOMAS OTWAY ARMSTRONG'S GOOD NIGHT by THOMAS ARMSTRONG CALMNESS OF THE SUBLIME by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY LILIES: 4. BLOSSOMS ABOVE A TOMB by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |