If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled, Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss The second burden of a former child! O, that record could with a backward look, Even of five hundred courses of the sun, Show me your image in some antique book, Since mind at first in character was done! That I might see what the old world could say To this composed wonder of your frame; Whether we are mended, or whether better they, Or whether revolution be the same. O, sure I am, the wits of former days To subjects worse have given admiring praise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO HIS CONSCIENCE by ROBERT HERRICK TO MOSCOW by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR THE FOLLY OF BEING COMFORTED by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE STRANGER'S ALMS by HENRY ABBEY SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 47 by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |