All other joys of life he strove to warm, And magnify, and catch them to his lip: But they had suffered shipwreck with the ship, And gazed upon him sallow from the storm. Or if Delusion came, 'twas but to show The coming minute mock the one that went. Cold as a mountain in its star-pitched tent, Stood high Philosophy, less friend than foe: Whom self-caged Passion, from its prison-bars, Is always watching with a wondering hate. Not till the fire is dying in the grate, Look we for any kinship with the stars. Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold, And the great price we pay for it full worth: We have it only when we are half earth. Little avails that coinage to the old! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PUSSY-WILLOW TIME by ROBERT FROST FINIS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SONGS OF EXPERIENCE: INTRODUCTION by WILLIAM BLAKE TEARS IN SLEEP by LOUISE BOGAN WOMAN'S BEAUTY by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE IN A SPRING GROVE by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM AS FROM THE PAST -- by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |