But if the reason were that implement We claim, should we not learn Without this long apprenticeship, This playing of the fool, To look beyond earth's beauty blindly sent, Discount false fires that burn In the brain; convert the plastic lip To truth, if not the eye? And should we not at last apply the rule Of the foredoomed earth, with silence and restraint To our lost selves? Measure the personal cry Against the fallen leaf; Note the worn cliff, and so choke down complaint? Oh, should we not root from us hope and grief, If reason were that tempered edge We claim, and unafraid To still the soul's loud talk of privilege With its indifferent blade? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A LOUSE, ON SEEING ONE ON A LADY'S BONNET AT CHURCH by ROBERT BURNS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 79. THE MONOCHORD by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE STUDY OF A SPIDER by JOHN BYRNE LEICESTER WARREN THE BLACK PANTHER by JOHN HALL WHEELOCK THE RECOLLECTION OF THE PEOPLE by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER PROLOGUE FOR THE SILVERDALE VILLAGE PLAYERS: EASTER 1924 by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |