The Builders
A MAN can build a bridge of wood and stone; Exterior forces his trained powers control; But the material of the Singer is his own, He cuts his songs from the raw texture of his soul.
Anna Wickham
A MAN can build a bridge of wood and stone; Exterior forces his trained powers control; But the material of the Singer is his own, He cuts his songs from the raw texture of his soul.
In these four lines, Wickham sets up a contrast between two kinds of making. A builder works with wood and stone, materials outside himself, and his trained skill lets him shape them into something solid. The singer or poet has no such external material.
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