the lost things found

Promised yesterday that I'd blip another of Jean Ingelow's poems ...

... so, here's a much shorter verse, taken from the 1888 volume of her poetry that I have - it's got a plain, dark green cover; so the snap is of the entry itself:


LOSS AND WASTE.

UP to far Osteroe and Suderoe
The deep sea-floor lies strewn with Spanish wrecks,
O'er minted gold the fair-haired fishers go,
O'er sunken bravery of high carved decks.

In earlier days great Carthage suffered bale
(All her waste works choke under sandy shoals);
And reckless hands tore down the temple veil;
And Omar burned the Alexandrian rolls.

The Old World arts men suffered not to last,
Flung down they trampled lie and sunk from view,
He lets wild forest for these ages past
Grow over the lost cities of the New.

O for a life that shall not be refused
To see the lost things found, and waste things used.

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Jean Ingelow (1820 –1897)

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