Son, I haven't much to tell you; I have learned that good advice is A prescription which but few of us will take, And my long and windy warnings might forsake you in a crisis, And besides, you've got your @3own@1 career to make; I have just this bit of counsel which may help you go the distance With no useless or unnecessary stop, As you mingle in the mêlée of the struggle for existence Don't you ever try to argue with a cop! There are plenty of adventures which a man may get away with, Though the world proclaim them hopeless from the start: You @3may@1 find a whirring buzz-saw is a pretty thing to play with, And at times a Bengal tiger has a heart; Youth is always doing wonders and forevermore achieving While the sages sneer and prophesy a flop, But there @3are@1 some final limits—it's a fact that's worth believing— So don't ever try to argue with a cop! You might swim the whirlpool rapids, you might butt your way through granite, You might set the Mississippi all aflame; But debating with policemen—take a tip from Dad, and can it— For the issue is infallibly the same. You are licked before you've started with your futile protestations, So just do the way he tells you, on the hop, And unless you have a fancy for a jail's accommodations Don't you ever try to argue with a cop! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON by ALFRED TENNYSON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 3. AR-RAHEEM by EDWIN ARNOLD THE VIAL by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE FALL IN! by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR GLIMPSES OF CHILDHOOD: 1. MOTHER MAGIC by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE OLD MANOR HOUSE by ADA CAMBRIDGE |