BEWARE a speedy friend, the Arabian said, And wisely was it he advised distrust. The flower that blossoms earliest fades the first. Look at yon oak that lifts its stately head And dallies with the autumnal storm, whose rage Tempests the ocean waves; slowly it rose, Slowly its strength increased, through many an age, And timidly did its light leaves unclose, As doubtful of the spring, their palest green. They to the summer cautiously expand, And by the warmer sun and season bland Matured, their foliage in the grove is seen, When the bare forest by the wintry blast Is swept, still lingering on the boughs the last. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE INSCRIBED TO W.H. CHANNING by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND by HENRY FIELDING LESSER EPISTLES: TO A YOUNG LADY WITH SOME LAMPREYS by JOHN GAY TO DOCTOR EMPIRIC by BEN JONSON THE CHARACTER OF HOLLAND by ANDREW MARVELL THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 101 by OMAR KHAYYAM WINDSOR FOREST by ALEXANDER POPE |