If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere. You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your complicated state of mind, The meaning doesn't matter if it's only idle chatter of a transcendental kind. And every one will say, As you walk your mystic way, "If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for @3me,@1 Why, what a very singularly deep young man this deep young man must be!" Be eloquent in praise of the very dull old days which have long since passed away, And convince 'em, if you can, that the days of Good Queen Anne was Culture's palmiest day. Of course you will pooh-pooh whatever's fresh and new, and declare it's crude and mean, For Art stopped short in the cultivated court of the Empress Josephine. And everyone will say, As you walk your mystic way, "If that's not good enough for him which is good enough for @3me,@1 Why, what a very cultivated kind of youth this kind of youth must be!" Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid spleen, An attachment à la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too-French French bean! Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band, If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your mediaeval hand. And every one will say, As you walk your flowery way, "If he's content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit @3me,@1 Why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...INSCRIPTION FOR AN ICE-HOUSE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD MOCK EPITAPH ON MR. AND MRS. ESTLIN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE PRAYSE OF LADY PECUNIA by RICHARD BARNFIELD THE POET, AND HIS INTERPRETERS by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON PSALM 25. AD TE DOMINE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |