DEAR fool, be true to me! I know the poets speak thee fair, and I Hail thee uncivilly. O but I call with a more urgent cry! I do not prize thee less, I need thee more, that thou dost love to teach -- Father of foolishness -- The imbecile dreams clear out of wisdom's reach. Come and release me; bring My irresponsible mind; come in thy hours. Draw from my soul the sting Of wit that trembles, consciousness that cowers. For if night comes without thee She is more cruel than day. But thou, fulfil Thy work, thy gifts about thee -- Liberty, liberty, from this weight of will. My day-mind can endure Upright, in hope, all it must undergo. But O afraid, unsure, My night-mind waking lies too low, too low. Dear fool, be true to me! The night is thine, man yields it, it beseems Thy ironic dignity. Make me all night the innocent fool that dreams. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE LAPLAND LONGSPUR by JOHN BURROUGHS NOVEMBER BLUE by ALICE MEYNELL ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH PERFECT WOMAN by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 15 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE RING AND THE BOOK: BOOK 9. JURIS DOCTOR ... BOTTINIUS by ROBERT BROWNING WAR NOTES: 4. DECORATION DAY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. LO! I OPEN A DOOR by EDWARD CARPENTER |