Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TELL ME YE WISE ONES IF YE CAN, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Last Line: Even, the sight we know so well Subject(s): Mankind | ||||||||
Tell me ye wise ones if ye can Whither and whence the race of man. For I have seen his slender clan Clinging to hoar hills with their feet Threading the forest for their meat Moss and lichens bark & grain They racke together with might & main And they digest them with anxiety & pain. I meet them in their rags and unwashed hair Instructed to eke out their scanty fare Brave race ''" with a yet humbler prayer Beggars they are aye on the largest scale They beg their daily bread at heavens door And if their this years crop alone shoud fail They neither bread nor begging would know more. They are the Titmans of their race And hug the vales with mincing pace Like Troglodites, and fight with cranes We walk 'mid great relations feet What they let fall alone we eat We are only able to catch the fragments from their table These elder brothers of our race By us unseen with larger pace Walk oer our heads, and live our lives embody our desires and dreams Anticipate our hoped for gleams We grub the earth for our food We know not what is good. Where does the fragrance of our orchards go Our vineyards while we toil below ''" A finer race and finer fed Feast and revel above our head. The tints and fragrance of the flowers & fruits Are but the crumbs from off their table While we consume the pulp and roots Some times we do assert our kin And stand a moment where once they have been We hear their sounds and see their sights And we experience their delights ''" But for the moment that we stand Astonished on the Olympian land. We do discern no traveller's face No elder brother of our race. To lead us to the monarch's court And represent our case. But straightway we must journey back retracing slow the arduous track Without the privelege to tell. Even, the sight we know so well. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOW MUCH EARTH by PHILIP LEVINE THE SHEEP IN THE RUINS by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH THE CONQUERORS by PHYLLIS MCGINLEY THE MARMOZET by HILAIRE BELLOC MEN, WOMEN, AND EARTH by ROBERT BLY BROTHERS: 3. AS FOR MYSELF by LUCILLE CLIFTON |
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