MY little niece and I -- I read My Plato in my easy-chair; And she was building on the floor A pack of cards with wondrous care. We worked in silence, but alas! Among the cards a mighty spill, And then the little ape exclaimed, "Well! Such is life! Look, Uncle Will!" I gave a start and dropped my book, -- It was the "Phaedo" I had read, -- A sympathetic current thrilled Like lightning through my heart and head. I eyed with curious awe the child, The unconscious Sibyl, where she sat, Whose thoughtless tongue could babble forth Strange parables of life and fate. Yet such is life! a Babel house, A common doom hath tumbled all, King, queen, and knave, and plain and trump, -- A motley crew in motley fall! We rear our hopes, no Pharaoh's tomb, Nor brass, could build so sure a name, But, soon or late, a sad collapse, And great the ruin of the same. Ah, such is life! Oh, sad and strange That love and wisdom so ordain! Some ere the builder's hands have yet One card against another lain; Some when the house is tiny still; Some when you've built a little more; And some when patience hath achieved A second, third, or higher floor. Or should you win the topmost stage, Yet is the strength but toil and pain -- And here the tiny voice rejoined, "But I can build it up again." My height of awe was reached. Can babes Behold what reason scans in vain? Ah, childhood is divine, I thought, -- Yes, Lizzie, build it up again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE FISHERS by CHARLES KINGSLEY REQUIEM FOR ONE SLAIN IN BATTLE by GEORGE LUNT PHILOSOPHIES by MADELEINE AARON STANZAS, OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF A RELATIVE ABROAD by BERNARD BARTON UNDER A THOUSAND WORDS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |