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 |  |
107
XXV
A COLLEGE FOR DECAYED
MERCHANTS, I
He well deserved of Age and Broken Means,
Who planned in Mercy's cause this fair retreat.
His heart is dust; but still his pity leans
To succour those who faint with long-borne heat,—
Pale traffickers grown old in clamorous scenes,
Who sought the gold it was not theirs to meet;
Content at last to embrace such kindly screens
As shut the wearied from the vigorous feet.
The sober reds of tile and brick, the door
High-arched and crowned with shielded blazonries,
The little pillared court with stony floor,
Are eloquent of sweet tranquillities,—
And garden-ground expanding more and more,
With paths that wind amid perpetual trees.
| Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems | |