O HEART, be at peace, because Nor knave nor dolt can break What's not for their applause, Being for a woman's sake. Enough if the work has seemed, So did she your strength renew, A dream that a lion had dreamed Till the wilderness cried aloud, A secret between you two, Between the proud and the proud. What, still you would have their praise! But here's a haughtier text, The labyrinth of her days That her own strangeness perplexed; And how what her dreaming gave Earned slander, ingratitude, From self-same dolt and knave; Aye, and worse wrong than these. Yet she, singing upon her road, Half lion, half child, is at peace. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIVE TREES by LOUIS UNTERMEYER ON AN INTAGLIO HEAD OF MINERVA (1) by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THANATOPSIS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH by ROBERT BURNS APOLLO by THOMAS HOLLEY CHIVERS ELEGY: 9. THE AUTUMNAL [BEAUTY] by JOHN DONNE THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS by FRANCIS HOPKINSON |