Sunday, December 22, 2013
In a Library
Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), "In a Library," Collected Poems (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1941), p. 266:
Newer› ‹Older
Would—would that there were
A book on that shelf
To teach an old man
To teach himself!—
The joy of some scribe,
Brush in service to quill,
Who, with bird, flower, landscape,
Emblem and vision,
Loved his margins to fill.
Then might I sit,
By true learning beguiled,
Far into the night,
Even with self reconciled,
Retrieving the wisdom
I lost, when a child.
