The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence

T.E. Lawrence - "Lawrence of Arabia"

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

I loved you, so I drew these tides of

Men into my hands

And wrote my will across the

Sky and stars

To earn you freedom, the seven

Pillared worthy house,

That your eyes might be

Shining for me

When we came

Death seemed my servant on the

Road, 'til we were near

And saw you waiting:

When you smiled and in sorrowful

Envy he outran me

And took you apart:

Into his quietness

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,

Our brief wage

Ours for the moment

Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape

And the blind

Worms grew fat upon

Your substance

Men prayed me that I set our work,

The inviolate house,

As a memory of you

But for fit monument I shattered it,

Unfinished: and now

The little things creep out to patch

Themselves hovels

In the marred shadow

Thomas Edmund Lawrence (1888-1935)

BIO: T.E. Lawrence was a British military officer who is best remembered as "Lawrence of Arabia." He was instrumental in aiding the Arabic revolt against the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. He wanted Arabs in the Middle East to be a free people. But the Middle East was split into British and French colonies over his objections. Oil was a major factor in this decision. Always a scholar who could speak several languages, he died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.