I never had a title-deed <br />To my estate. But little heed <br />Eyes give to me, when I walk by <br />My fields, to see who occupy. <br />Some clumsy men who lease and hire <br />And cut my trees to feed their fire, <br />Own all the land that I possess, <br />And tax my tenants to distress. <br />And if I say I had been first, <br />And, reaping, left for them the worst, <br />That they were beggars at the hands <br />Of dwellers on my royal lands, <br />With idle laugh of passing scorn <br />As unto words of madness born, <br />They would reply <br />I do not care; <br />They cannot crowd the charméd air; <br />They cannot touch the bonds I hold <br />On all that they have bought and sold. <br />They can waylay my faithful bees, <br />Who, lulled to sleep, with fatal ease, <br />Are robbe. Is one day's honey sweet <br />Thus snatched? All summer round my feet <br />In golden drifts from plumy wings, <br />In shining drops on fragrant things <br />Free gift, it came to me. My corn, <br />With burnished banners, morn by morn, <br />Comes out to meet and honor me; <br />The glittering ranks spread royally <br />Far as I walk. When hasty greed <br />Tramples it down for food and seed, <br />I, with a certain veiled delight, <br />Hear half the crop is lost by blight. <br /> <br />Letter of the law these may fulfil, <br />Plant where they like, slay what they will, <br />Count up their gains and make them great; <br />Nevertheless, the whole estate <br />Always belongs to me and mine. <br />We are the only royal line. <br />And though I have no title-deed <br />My tenants pay me royal heed <br />When our sweet fields I wander by <br />To see what strangers occupy.<br /><br />Helen Hunt Jackson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-tenants/
