LONG shalt thou flourish, Windsor! bodying forth Chivalric times, and long shall live around Thy Castle -- the old oaks of British birth, Whose knarled roots, tenacious and profound, As with a lion's talons grasp the ground. But should thy towers in ivied ruin rot, There's one, thine inmate once, whose strain renowned Would interdict thy name to be forgot; For Chaucer loved thy bowers and trode this very spot. Chaucer! our Helicon's first fountain-stream, Our morning star of song -- that led the way To welcome the long-after coming beam Of Spenser's light and Shakspeare's perfect day. Old England's fathers live in Chaucer's lay, As if they ne'er had died. He grouped and drew Their likeness with a spirit of life so gay, That still they live and breathe in Fancy's view, Fresh beings fraught with truth's imperishable hue. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWENTY-FOUR HOKKU ON A MODERN THEME by AMY LOWELL SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN AFTER TU FU (THEY SAY YOU'RE STAYING IN A MOUNTAIN TEMPLE) by MARVIN BELL EMERGENCY HAYING by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE JOBHOLDER by DAVID IGNATOW BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT by DAVID IGNATOW BEFORE A PAINTING by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |