Christopher John Brennan

Here you will find the Poem Droop'st thou and fail'st? but these have never tired of poet Christopher John Brennan

Droop'st thou and fail'st? but these have never tired

Droop'st thou and fail'st? but these have never tired; 
winds of the region, free, they shine and sing, 
unurged, unguerdon'd: hast thou then desired 
to be with them and trail'st a useless wing? 
Self-pity hath thee in her clinging damp, 
and makes a siren-music of thy woes 
to lure thy feet into that reptile-swamp 
where rancour's muddy stream, festering, throes. 
Cunning is her condolence with the snarl 
of canker'd memory or the soft tear 
for vanisht sweetness: come, an honest parle, 
air for thy ailment! make these wrongs appear. 
Ay, this hath spat at thee, and that hath flung 
his native mud, and that with bilious guile 
most plausible ? what! hast thou loved and sung 
as was in thee, and need'st do else than smile? 
(Heed not that subtle demon that would prompt 
to measure thee by them; so humbled yet 
thou art not, nor so beggar'd thine accompt: 
what thou art, that thou hast, and know'st thy debt.) 
And in thy house of love the venom'd dart 
was thrust within thy side ? Even so! must then 
the gather'd ripeness of thy mind and heart 
be turn'd to flies? that is no way for men. 
Who said, and rid himself of usual awe, 
I prize not man, save as his metal rings 
of god or hero? Hast thou made a law, 
live by thy law: 'tis carrion hath no wings.