Thus Dulness, the safe Opiate of the Mind, The last kind Refuge weary Wit can find, Fit for all Stations, and in each content Is satisfy'd, secure, and innocent: No Pains it takes, and no Offence it gives, Un-fear'd, un-hated, un-disturb'd it lives. -- And if each writing Author's best pretence, Be but to teach the Ignorant more Sense; Then Dulness was the Cause they wrote before, As 'tis at last the Cause they write no more; So Wit, which most to scorn it does pretend, With Dulness first began, in Dulness last must end. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN EXPOSTULATION by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE PROGRESSIVE HEALTH by CARL DENNIS GENTLEMEN-RANKERS by RUDYARD KIPLING CROSSING THE PLAINS by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER THE MOTHER'S HEART by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON MY FAMILIAR by JOHN GODFREY SAXE IN MEMORIAM (EASTER 1915) by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS |