Faith and fixt hope these pages may peruse, And still be faith and hope; but, O ye winds! Blow them far off from all unstable minds, And foolish grasping hands of youth! Ye dews Of heaven! be pleased to rot them where they fall, Lest loitering boys their fancies should abuse, And they get harm by chance, that cannot choose; So be they stained and sodden, each and all! And if, perforce, on dry and gusty days, Upon the breeze some truant leaf should rise, Brittle with many weathers, to the skies, Or flit and dodge about the public ways -- Man's choral shout, or organ's peal of praise Shall shake it into dust, like older lies. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAPUT MORTUUM by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON WE HAVE GONE THROUGH GREAT ROOMS TOGETHER by CARL SANDBURG WHEN THE GREAT GRAY SHIPS COME IN [AUGUST 20, 1898] by GUY WETMORE CARRYL THE CONTRACT by EMILY DICKINSON A WISH by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE JACOBITE ON TOWER HILL by GEORGE WALTER THORNBURY AN EPITAPH UPON THE DEATH OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY by RICHARD BARNFIELD |