quote · Legacy record
There! See our roof, its gilt moulding and groining Under those spider-webs lying!... Is it your moral of Life? Such a web, simple and subtle, Weave we on earth here in impotent strife, Backward and forward each throwing his shuttle, Death ending all with a knife? Over our heads truth and nature— Still our life’s zigzags and dodges, Ins and outs, weaving a new legislature— God’s gold just showing its last where that lodges, Palled beneath man’s usurpature. So we o’ershroud stars and roses, Cherub and trophy and garland; Nothings grow something which quietly closes Heaven’s earnest eye; not a glimpse of the far land Gets through our comments and glozes.
There! See our roof, its gilt moulding and groining Under those spider-webs lying!... Is it your moral of Life? Such a web, simple and subtle, Weave we on earth here in impotent strife, Backward and forward each throwing his shuttle, Death ending all with a knife? Over our heads truth and nature— Still our life’s zigzags and dodges, Ins and outs, weaving a new legislature— God’s gold just showing its last where that lodges, Palled beneath man’s usurpature. So we o’ershroud stars and roses, Cherub and trophy and garland; Nothings grow something which quietly closes Heaven’s earnest eye; not a glimpse of the far land Gets through our comments and glozes.
Approximate author period: c. 1850 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Robert Browning
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1850 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1812–1889)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- My Commonplace Book (third English edition,1921) (1921 AD)
Page 13 · printed citation: R. Browning (Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha). · compiler notes excluded
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.