My Descendants
Meditations In Time Of Civil War
My Descendants - meaning Summary
Inheritance of Mind and Fate
The speaker reflects on intellectual inheritance and the precariousness of legacy. He expects to pass on a vigorous mind but worries life’s fleeting pleasures, business, or bad marriages will dull his descendants. Imagery of a ruined tower suggests his efforts may decay into mere masonry where owls cry. Still, he accepts that built things — houses altered for love, durable stones — will remain as a modest monument to him.
Read Complete AnalysesHaving inherited a vigorous mind From my old fathers, I must nourish dreams And leave a woman and a man behind As vigorous of mind, and yet it seems Life scarce can cast a fragrance on the wind, Scarce spread a glory to the morning beams, But the torn petals strew the garden plot; And there's but common greenness after that. And what if my descendants lose the flower Through natural declension of the soul, Through too much business with the passing hour, Through too much play, or marriage with a fool? May this laborious stair and this stark tower Become a roofless min that the owl May build in the cracked masonry and cry Her desolation to the desolate sky. The primum Mobile that fashioned us Has made the very owls in circles move; And I, that count myself most prosperous, Seeing that love and friendship are enough, For an old neighbour's friendship chose the house And decked and altered it for a girl's love, And know whatever flourish and decline These stones remain their monument and mine.
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