CLOSE the book, and leave the tale All unfinished. It is best: Brighter fancy will not fail To relate the rest. We have read it on and on, Till each character, in sooth, By the master-touches drawn, Is a living truth. Leave it so, and let us sit, With the volume laid away -- Cut no other leaf of it, But as Fancy may. -- Then the friends that we have met In its pages will endure, And the villain, even yet, May be white and pure. Close the book, and leave the tale All unfinished. It is best: Brighter fancy will not fail To relate the rest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOD by GABRIEL ROMANOVITCH DERZHAVIN YOUTH AND CUPID by ELIZABETH I SPRING AND FALL: TO A YOUNG CHILD by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS WINTER MEMORIES by HENRY DAVID THOREAU ON BEING ASKED IF ONE WAS A NUMBER, REPLY TO MR. HOUGHTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE KNIGHT AND THE LADY; DOMESTIC LEGEND OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM A BALLADE OF COLLEGE GIRLS by F. R. BATCHELDER |