Gray towers make me think of thee, <br />Thou girl of olden minstrelsy, <br />Young as the sunlight of to-day, <br />Silent as tasselled boughs in May! <br /> <br />A wind-flower in a world of harm, <br />A harebell on a turret's arm, <br />A pearl upon the hilt of fame <br />Thou wert, fair child of some high name. <br /> <br />The velvet page, the deep-eyed knight, <br />The heartless falcon, poised for flight, <br />The dainty steed and graceful hound, <br />In thee their keenest rapture found. <br /> <br />But for old ballads, and the rhyme <br />And writ of genius o'er the time <br />When keeps had newly reared their towers, <br />The winning scene had not been ours. <br /> <br />O Chivalry! thy age was fair, <br />When even knaves set out to dare <br />Their heads for any barbarous crime, <br />And hate was brave, and love sublime. <br /> <br />The bugle-note I send so far <br />Across Time's moors to thee, sweet star, <br />Where stands thy castle in its mist, <br />Hear, if the wandering breezes list!<br /><br />Rose Hawthorne Lathrop<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/looking-backward/
