SO much to learn! Old Nature's ways Of glee and gloom with rapt amaze To study, probe, and paint -- brown earth, Salt sea, blue heavens, their tilth and dearth, Birds, grasses, trees -- the natural things That throb or grope or poise on wings. So much to learn about the world Of men and women! We are hurled Through interstellar space a while Together, then the sob, the smile, Is silenced, and the solemn spheres Whirl lonesomely along the years. So much to learn from wisdom's store Of early art and ancient lore. So many stories treasured long On temples, tombs, and columns strong. The legend of old eld, so large And eloquent from marge to marge. So much to learn about one's self: The fickle soul, the nimble elf That masks as me; the shifty will, The sudden valor and the thrill; The shattered shaft, the broken force That seems supernal in its source. And yet the days are brief. The sky Shuts down before the waking eye Has bid good-morrow to the sun; The light drops low, and Life is done. Good-by, good-night, the star-lamps burn; So brief the time, so much to learn! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLAD OF HECTOR IN HADES by EDWIN MUIR THE KANSAS EMIGRANTS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER EXPLANATION by VIRGINIA A. ALLIN NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 23 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT LINES WRITTEN IN ROUSSEAU'S LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN. by GEORGE GORDON BYRON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. BY LAKE WACHUSETT by EDWARD CARPENTER |