Ah, we are neither heaven nor earth, but men; Something that uses and despises both, That takes its earth's contentment in the pen, Then sees the world's injustice and is wroth, And flinging off youth's happy promise, flies Up to some breach, despising earthly things, And, in contempt of hell and heaven, dies Rather than bear some yoke of priests or kings. Our joys are not of heaven nor earth, but man's, A woman's beauty, or a child's delight, The trembling blood when the discoverer scans The sought-for world, the guessed-at satellite; The ringing scene, the stone at point to blush For unborn men to look at and say 'Hush.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CINQUAIN: NIGHT WINDS by ADELAIDE CRAPSEY THE SUN GOD by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE AN HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND by ANDREW MARVELL TO HIS DEAD BODY by SIEGFRIED SASSOON TO THE SAME PURPOSE by THOMAS TRAHERNE PSALM 68 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE CHRISTMAS EVE by MATHILDE BLIND |