Two Castles.
I know a castle, great and high,1
That flaunts its turrets to the sky,2
And covers, fairly measured round,3
Three hundred roods of fertile ground.4
And were that castle, (fate forefend !)5
Burned to the earth, no stone on end,6
Three years, and money, were it got,7
Would build it up again, I wot !8
But here a nobler castle stands,9
Than e’er was reared by human hands,10
A tall, wide-spreading beechen tree,11
Whose bole is thirty feet and three.12
And were this castle smitten low,13
By fire, or flood, or woodman’s blow,14
Not all the strength of mortal men15
Could ever build it up again.16
Not all the gold by Commerce won,17
Since lime its circuit first begun,18
Could re-erect its giant girth,19
Or raise such fabric from the earth.20
Unless, for thrice a hundred years,21
The influence of the circling spheres,22
The rain, the dew, the shade, the shine,23
Combined to aid the great design.24
Crœsus ! be modest with your gold,25
Little it brings, when all is told :26
Monarchs ! be humble in your towers,27
You’re not so regal as the bowers !28