Life is a long discovery, isn't it? You only get your wisdom bit by bit. If you have luck you find in it in early youth How dangerous it is to tell the Truth; And next you learn how dignity and peace Are the ripe fruits of patient avarice. You find that middle life goes racing past. You find despair: and, at the very last, You find as you are giving up the ghost That those who loved you best despised you most. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE 'VITA NUOVA' OF DANTE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE FOUNDERS OF OHIO by WILLIAM HENRY VENABLE A MORNING HYMN by CHARLES WESLEY FELDMESTEN OR MEASURING THE GRAVES by ALTER ABELSON LILIES: 18. A PICTURE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) ODE TO A CHILD by MATHILDE BLIND LIMERICK by ROBERT JONES BURDETTE |