WILD nature not by kindness won, because So seldom wooed that way; -- thou melodist, That singest only the eternal songs, And changeless through the ages, conquerest Time; Thou white-wing'd joy, skimming the white-lipp'd sea; Thou antlered forest lord: nor ye alone -- The eminent and splendid ones of Earth -- But creatures nearer to Man's daily walk; Thou timorous fugitive, obscurely housed In populous labyrinth under hillock and holm; Thou noble hound, with thy immortal gift Of loving whom thou servest; dear allies, Friends, and co-heritors of Life with me; What Power devised and fashioned you I know not; I know not, for my faith hath failed me sore; But this I know: @3whatever natural rights Be mine, are yours no less, by native dower:@1 If none entitled is to bind @3me@1 down, And rend, and mar, and rack, and break, and flay me, None hath a title so to ravage @3you,@1 Saving such title as defames alike Him that bestows and him that uses it. This is the thing I know and doubt not of; And this none taught me, but I drank it deep From the pure well-spring of my mother's breasts, Nor shall it die within me till I die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLD LEM by STERLING ALLEN BROWN IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 23 by ALFRED TENNYSON TO A FRIEND WHOSE WORK HAS COME TO NOTHING by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS PSALM 1. THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED CONTRASTED by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE OBSERVATIONS ON A FEW VERSES OF HORACE by JOHN BYROM |