 | Brackenham Church |  |
27
KEEPING FAITH
Good morrow, tousled Ragwort! come again
With gold to flaunt among the harebells showing,
For all the fisticuffs of thunder-rain,
How slender lives are helped to bear with blowing.
Your wealth the poverty of commonlands,
You put my heart in double debt by spending
(As benefactors rich with open hands)
The gold was granted for a flower's defending.
When first your kinsmen nodded from the grass
Their rumpled heads to me in autumn glory
I vowed that never nodless would I pass
Their civil breed. This, Ragwort, is my story.
With gold to flaunt among the harebells showing,
For all the fisticuffs of thunder-rain,
How slender lives are helped to bear with blowing.
Your wealth the poverty of commonlands,
You put my heart in double debt by spending
(As benefactors rich with open hands)
The gold was granted for a flower's defending.
When first your kinsmen nodded from the grass
Their rumpled heads to me in autumn glory
I vowed that never nodless would I pass
Their civil breed. This, Ragwort, is my story.
Time's a poor scholar, but he knows at least
How seldom man says grace before a feast.
How seldom man says grace before a feast.
| Brackenham Church | |