Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 1, 19 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: YET VAIN, PERHAPS, THE FRUITS OUR CARE APPLAUD
Last Line: IN THE GREAT FLIGHT OF STARS ACROSS THE EARTH?
Yet vain, perhaps, the fruits our care applaud:
If the Forefate decree the harvest fat
Why should we mind this thing or matter that,
To sift the seed and blow the chaff abroad?
But doubt not so the Giver to defraud
Who will accuse thy labor: spend, nor slack
Of thy best strength and sweetness too, till God
With a full hand and flowing pay thee back.
Behold, on rolling zone and zodiac
The spray and scatter of his bounty flung,
And what canst thou, to whom no hands belong
To hasten by one hour the morning's birth?
Or stay one planet at his circle hung,
In the great flight of stars across the earth?



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