EARTH-SONG
37 lines✦
Mine and yours;Mine, not yours.Earth endures;Stars abide--Shine down in the old sea;Old are the shores;But where are old men?I who have seen much,Such have I never seen. 'The lawyer's deedRan sure,In tail,To them, and to their heirsWho shall succeed,Without fail,Forevermore. 'Here is the land,Shaggy with wood,With its old valley,Mound and flood.But the heritors?-- Fled like the flood's foam.The lawyer, and the laws,And the kingdom,Clean swept herefrom. 'They called me theirs,Who so controlled me;Yet every oneWished to stay, and is gone,How am I theirs,If they cannot hold me,But I hold them?' When I heard the Earth-songI was no longer brave;My avarice cooledLike lust in the chill of the grave. THE RHODORA:
✦