 | English Roses |  |
“RAGS AND BONES.”
“Rags and bones!”
There he trudges down the stones,
Full of mirth and mischief's babble;
Living just from hand to mouth,
In and of the homeless rabble.
But that mean and common cry
Is, as much as thought or thunder
Or the love we trample under,
Part of God's great mystery.
There he trudges down the stones,—
“Rags and bones!”
There he trudges down the stones,
570
Living just from hand to mouth,
In and of the homeless rabble.
But that mean and common cry
Is, as much as thought or thunder
Or the love we trample under,
Part of God's great mystery.
There he trudges down the stones,—
“Rags and bones!”
“Rags and bones!”
Still the same familiar tones.
His the fate that laughs at sorrow,
Takes the buffets on his way
All as in a working day,
And regards no coming morrow;
Takes the trouble or the grief
As the small and doubtful pleasure,
Meted with no different measure,
Till it is its own relief.
Yet the same familiar tones,—
“Rags and bones!”
Still the same familiar tones.
His the fate that laughs at sorrow,
Takes the buffets on his way
All as in a working day,
And regards no coming morrow;
Takes the trouble or the grief
As the small and doubtful pleasure,
Meted with no different measure,
Till it is its own relief.
Yet the same familiar tones,—
“Rags and bones!”
“Rags and bones!”
This will sound, when tumble thrones;
For the lewd and lawless vagrant
Will not lose his careless crown,
Swimming when the mighty drown,
And of deathless force is fragrant.
For he cannot lower fall
Than the gutter or the pavement,
And is too above enslavement,
King though minister of all.
This will sound, when tumble thrones,—
“Rags and bones!”
This will sound, when tumble thrones;
For the lewd and lawless vagrant
Will not lose his careless crown,
Swimming when the mighty drown,
And of deathless force is fragrant.
For he cannot lower fall
Than the gutter or the pavement,
And is too above enslavement,
King though minister of all.
This will sound, when tumble thrones,—
“Rags and bones!”
“Rags and bones!”
True as vesper chimes or nones.
When the war-shout with its shaking
Dies together with the creed
Passing as the passing need,
This will have a constant waking.
Soon may dynasties be gone,
And like moulting of the pigeon
Men will change their old religion,
But the vulgar shall live on
True as vesper chimes or nones,—
“Rags and bones!”
True as vesper chimes or nones.
When the war-shout with its shaking
Dies together with the creed
Passing as the passing need,
571
Soon may dynasties be gone,
And like moulting of the pigeon
Men will change their old religion,
But the vulgar shall live on
True as vesper chimes or nones,—
“Rags and bones!”
| English Roses | |