HOPE smiled when your nativity was cast, Children of Summer! Ye fresh Flowers that brave What Summer here escapes not, the fierce wave, And whole artillery of the western blast, Battering the Temple's front, its long-drawn nave Smiting, as if each moment were their last. But ye, bright Flowers on frieze and architrave Survive, and once again the Pile stands fast: Calm as the Universe, from specular towers Of heaven contemplated by Spirits pure With mute astonishment, it stands sustained Through every part in symmetry, to endure, Unhurt, the assault of Time with all his hours, As the supreme Artificer ordained. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE LAPLAND LONGSPUR by JOHN BURROUGHS TWENTY GOLDEN YEARS AGO by JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN A FAERY SONG, SUNG BY THE PEOPLE OF FAERY OVER DIARMUID by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO HIS WIFE by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS THE INN ALBUM: PART 2 by ROBERT BROWNING CUTTING CORN IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY |