We act in crises not as one who dons A judge's robe and sits to praise or blame With walnut gavel, before high window-frame, Beside a Justice-and-her-scales in bronze; We act in crises not by pros and cons Of volumes in brown calfskin still the same; But, like the birds and beasts from which we came, By the long trend of character -- the @3fons,@1 @3Fons et origo@1 -- fountainhead and source -- Of deeper conduct, whether in unleashed hound That tears the fleeting stag unto the ground, Or thrush in battle for its fledgeling's corse, Or boy who sees the cracked dam, hears a sound, And down the peopled valley spurs his horse. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS A SONG OF A YOUNG LADY TO HER ANCIENT LOVER by JOHN WILMOT LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY - 1918 by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS THE CATHEDRAL PORCH by LAURENCE BINYON CAN YOU HEAR IT? by THERESA DRULEY BLACK PETITION (2) by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE ON THE THRESHOLD by LE ROY J. N. BOYD |