I WALKED and came upon a picket fence, And every picket went straight up and down, And all at even intervals were placed, All painted green, all pointed at the top, And every one inextricably nailed Unto two several cross-beams, which did go, Not as the pickets, but quite otherwise, And they two crossed, but back of all were posts. O beauteous picket fence, can I not draw Instruction from thee? Yea, for thou dost teach, That even as the pickets are made fast To that which seems all at cross purposes, So are our human lives, to the Divine, But, oh! not purposeless, for even as they Do keep stray cows from trespass, we, no doubt, Together guard some plan of Deity. Thus did I moralise. And from the beams And pickets drew a lesson to myself, -- But where the posts came in, I could not tell. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLANTS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK by CARL SANDBURG GO SLEEP, MA HONEY by EDWARD D. BARKER THE LEAK IN THE DIKE; A STORY OF HOLLAND by PHOEBE CARY EPIGRAM: 118. ON GUT by BEN JONSON THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER OUR SOLDIERS' SANTIAGO SONG by DAVID GRAHAM ADEE EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 36. GOLD THE PICKLOCK by PHILIP AYRES |