I LAUGH at all the fools who at me gape, And whom with prying goat-like face I see; I laugh at every fox who knavishly And idly snuffs me like a very grape; I laugh at every vain pretentious ape, Who a proud judge of genius claims to be; I laugh at all the knaves who threaten me With poisonous weapons whence there's no escape. For when the charming fancies joy once gave Are wrested from us by the hands of fate, And at our feet in thousand atoms cast, And when our very heart is torn at last, All torn and cut and pierced and desolate, A fine shrill laugh we still have power to save. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CARILLON by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW MEMORIAL TO D.C.: 5. ELEGY by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT; AN ODE ATTEMPTED IN ENGLISH SAPPHIC by ISAAC WATTS ECSTACY by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THE LAST BALLADE; MASTER FRANCOIS VILLON LOQUITUR by THOMAS BEER PRAYER OF A SPORTSMAN by BERTON BRALEY FAREWELL TO CUBA by MARIA GOWEN BROOKS |