Henry David Thoreau - Sic Vita

I am a parcel of vain strivings tied <br />By a chance bond together, <br />Dangling this way and that, their links <br />Were made so loose and wide, <br />Methinks, <br />For milder weather. <br /> <br />A bunch of violets without their roots, <br />And sorrel intermixed, <br />Encircled by a wisp of straw <br />Once coiled about their shoots, <br />The law <br />By which I'm fixed. <br /> <br />A nosegay which Time clutched from out <br />Those fair Elysian fields, <br />With weeds and broken stems, in haste, <br />Doth make the rabble rout <br />That waste <br />The day he yields. <br /> <br />And here I bloom for a short hour unseen, <br />Drinking my juices up, <br />With no root in the land <br />To keep my branches green, <br />But stand <br />In a bare cup. <br /> <br />Some tender buds were left upon my stem <br />In mimicry of life, <br />But ah! the children will not know, <br />Till time has withered them, <br />The woe <br />With which they're rife. <br /> <br />But now I see I was not plucked for naught, <br />And after in life's vase <br />Of glass set while I might survive, <br />But by a kind hand brought <br />Alive <br />To a strange place. <br /> <br />That stock thus thinned will soon redeem its hours, <br />And by another year, <br />Such as God knows, with freer air, <br />More fruits and fairer flowers <br />Will bear, <br />While I droop here.<br /><br />Henry David Thoreau<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sic-vita/