Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE REWARD, by IVAN SWIFT



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE REWARD, by                    
First Line: What boots my will to guide a gilded tongue
Last Line: And swing, a rattling vine, the autumn pyre above!
Subject(s): Rewards


WHAT boots my will to guide a gilded tongue —
To hope, or send the plenteous days to find
New magic lamps? My childish trumpets wind
But faint along the walls whose stones have rung,
In older days, with echoes nobler sung!
But worth is this — my tender wreath — to bind
Or yet adorn? — Antiquity has twined
Her hempen bands the moss of years among.

We quit the shodden world, ambition stung,
And toy with vibrant shafts in the open blue —
One with the careless cloud, nursed of dew!
Upgathering sweets from ancient hills o'erflung,
We bud and bloom, and reach the lips of Love! —
And swing, a rattling vine, the autumn pyre above!





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