"Why are you so bent down before your time,
Old mason? Many have not left their prime
So far behind at your age, and can still
Stand full upright at will."
He pointed to the mansion-front hard by,
And to the stones of the quoin against the sky;
"Those upper blocks," he said, "that there you see,
It was that ruined me."
There stood in the air up to the parapet
Crowning the corner height, the stones as set
By him — ashlar whereon the gales might drum
For centuries to come.
"I carried them up," he said, "by a ladder there;
The last was as big a load as I could bear;
But on I heaved; and something in my back
Moved, as 'twere with a crack.
"So I got crookt. I never lost that sprain;
And those who live there, walled from wind and rain
By freestone that I lifted, do not know
That my life's ache came so.
"They don't know me, or even know my name,
But good I think it, somehow, all the same
To have kept 'em safe from harm, and right and tight,
Though it has broke me quite.
"Yes; that I fixed it firm up there I am proud,
Facing the hail and snow and sun and cloud,
And to stand storms for ages, beating round
When I lie underground."
Old mason? Many have not left their prime
So far behind at your age, and can still
Stand full upright at will."
He pointed to the mansion-front hard by,
And to the stones of the quoin against the sky;
"Those upper blocks," he said, "that there you see,
It was that ruined me."
There stood in the air up to the parapet
Crowning the corner height, the stones as set
By him — ashlar whereon the gales might drum
For centuries to come.
"I carried them up," he said, "by a ladder there;
The last was as big a load as I could bear;
But on I heaved; and something in my back
Moved, as 'twere with a crack.
"So I got crookt. I never lost that sprain;
And those who live there, walled from wind and rain
By freestone that I lifted, do not know
That my life's ache came so.
"They don't know me, or even know my name,
But good I think it, somehow, all the same
To have kept 'em safe from harm, and right and tight,
Though it has broke me quite.
"Yes; that I fixed it firm up there I am proud,
Facing the hail and snow and sun and cloud,
And to stand storms for ages, beating round
When I lie underground."
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2017/11/30 - 13:06
×
![]()
Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Trovo la poesia – ma forse solo in lettura musicale - nel IX° volume nella poderosa raccolta di poesia e musica folk inglese intitolata “Poetry and Song” (14 LP), pubblicata nel 1967.
Mi viene bene contribuire questa poesia in questi giorni in cui gente che non ha mai lavorato – almeno nell’accezione del lavoro prima di tutto come fatica fisica – discute sui cosiddetti “lavori usuranti” che consentirebbero a poche decine di migliaia di lavoratori – spesso stranieri, spesso sfruttati e malpagati, spesso già morti, caduti da qualche impalcatura, in qualche pozzo, in qualche cisterna - di andare in quiescenza (preferisco questo termine prettamente botanico/zoologico all’orrido pensione, che evoca un alberghetto lurido di quint’ordine) qualche mese prima di essere comunque raggiunti da morte naturale per “raggiunti limiti d’età”…