Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE GUARDIANS by IBN SA'ID OF ALCALA LA REAL

First Line: SUCH CHURLISH BRUTES HIS GUARDIANS BE
Last Line: WHEN WATERED WITH SUFFICIENT PENCE.

Such churlish brutes his guardians be,
Well-schooled in incivility,
Sworn to do battle, when they can,
With every cultivated man.

Whene'er ambitious lover would
Draw nigher to his neighbourhood,
The jealous watchers swiftly rise
And whisk their moon into the skies.

But I have learned a gambit fit
The keenest guardian to outwit,
A stratagem to mollify
The most inexorable spy.

It needs the succour of a shower
For earth to show her guarded flower,
And their hostility relents
When watered with sufficient pence.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net