I. OUR life is but a puppet show; Men, mere mechanic factors; And rich and poor, and high and low, Involuntary actors. Clowns, courtiers, statesmen, serfs, and kings, The wicked and the pious, -- We all are worked by secret springs, And move as others ply us. II. And yet, vain man! he deems his course Is by himself decided; Because he cannot see the force By which his mind is guided. But soon or later he will see That, like his wooden brothers, He's ever been, and still must be, A puppet, ruled by others. III. Just mark the maid of seventeen, When first the gentle dreamer, Unconscious what the mood may mean, Feels love's delicious tremor, -- What secret power, unknown before, Can thus so sweetly sway her? She's but a puppet, nothing more, -- And Cupid is the player! IV. Observe yon alderman so grand, How shrewdly and how neatly His wife (the young coquette!) has planned To rule the man completely! Perhaps a spark of jealous fire Within the puppet lingers, I only know the moving wire Is held in madam's fingers! V. And so it is with all mankind, The womankind befool us; We're merely puppets, deaf and blind, And hers the art to rule us; We laugh and cry and work and play According to her fancies; Whate'er the lady's whim may say, Just so the puppet dances! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A TUFT OF GRASS by EMMA LAZARUS CELSUS AT HADRIAN'S VILLA by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE WIFE A-LOST by WILLIAM BARNES TO SHAKESPEARE by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE THE CUMBERLAND [MARCH 8, 1862] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW OUR LEFT' by FRANCIS ORRERY TICKNOR AUTUMN WOODS by ANNA M. ACKERMANN PRIVATE DEVOTION by PHOEBE HINSDALE BROWN PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE: CHRISTOPHER SMART by ROBERT BROWNING |