A soldier of the Cromwell stamp, <br />With sword and psalm-book by his side, <br />At home alike in church and camp: <br />Austere he lived, and smileless died. <br /> <br />But she, a creature soft and fine- <br />From Spain, some say, some say from France; <br />Within her veins leapt blood like wine- <br />She led her Roundhead lord a dance! <br /> <br />In Grantham church they lie asleep; <br />Just where, the verger may not know. <br />Strange that two hundred years should keep <br />The old ancestral fires aglow! <br /> <br />In me these two have met again; <br />To each my nature owes a part: <br />To one, the cool and reasoning brain; <br />To one, the quick, unreasoning heart.<br /><br />Thomas Bailey Aldrich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/heredity-5/
