Where dost thou careless lie Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge, that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits, and arts, and oft destroys them both. Are all the Aonian springs Dried up? Lies Thespia waste? Doth Clarius' harp want strings, That not a nymph now sings? Or droop they as disgraced, To see their seats and bowers by chattering pies defaced? If hence thy silence be, As 'tis too just a cause; Let this thought quicken thee, Minds that are great and free, Should not on fortune pause, 'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause. What though the greedy fry Be taken with false baits Of worded balladry, And think it poesy? They die with their conceits, And only piteous scorn, upon their folly waits. Then take in hand thy lyre, Strike in thy proper strain, With Japhet's line, aspire Sol's chariot for new fire, To give the world again: Who aided him, will thee, the issue of Jove's brain. And since our dainty age Cannot endure reproof, Make not thyself a page, To that strumpet the stage, But sing high and aloof, Safe from the wolf's black jaw, and the dull ass's hoof. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BIRD'S ANGER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES TO THE PLIOCENE SKULL by FRANCIS BRET HARTE MOTHER TO SON by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES MORAL ESSAYS: EPISTLE 4. TO RICHARD BOYLE, EARL BURLINGTON by ALEXANDER POPE THE FLAT-HUNTER'S WAY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PSALM 68 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |