 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
The Unfaithful Servants
Thou hast no other hands than those that toil,In other tasks than what thou giv'st them now;
For these thou hast the others' work but spoil,
They idly tear the ground that these would plough;
They have been long employed, and learnt them arts,
The others know and yet were never taught;
False actors saying to themselves their parts,
Till they the gait and living tone have caught;
'Tis but a show, these buildings that they rear,
Card-fabrics overblown with every breath;
Their mightiest labor, things that but appear;
An out-seen world; begat of thee by death,
When first thine eye began to cease to see,
And made; when first thy hand forgot a hand to be.
Poem No. 679; late 1839—early 1840
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |