Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems including a Reprint of Echoes from Theocritus: By Wilfred Austin Gill: With a Critical Estimate of the Sonnets by the late John Addington Symonds |
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 | Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems |  |
145
XCV
THE CARPET-WEAVER
Lived once a carpet-weaver, poor in purse
But rich in love for all things fair, and all
That lift the soul. Hard fortune! Did he curse
The sordid Fates that bound him to the stall?
He reared his booth against the temple wall,
Marked every day the wreathèd crowds disperse,
Heard flute and tabor and the doves' low call
And wove meanwhile his carpets—think you, worse?
We may not all be temple-slaves of Art;
The world has ruder work for you, for me.
Yet so God lets us toil that, pure in heart,
We dimly guess what happier eyes can see;
What happier lips can sing is ours in part,
If we keep time with their sweet minstrelsy.
| Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems | |