Means of Protection
As plovers trail their wings To hide t nest from men's concern, Right lovers turn Talk that nears treasured things.
The best of judgment says No case is won by what speech proves, Least of all love's.
We live by silences.
All that is fair courts danger.
When wit with daring lights a face Of candid grace,
I, the protecting stranger,
Must turn my gaze, for fear
I lose that vision, for the mind Needs shade to find
The full light of the sphere.
Such means will fortify The truth from uncouth trespassers, And keep, in verse,
All hushed, till they pass by.
I must, seeing I have fought Error, both in myself and men, Build, like the wren,
To understand my thought,
A number of small nests In branches that may catch the sun, To guard that one In which the interest rests.
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