SEES not my friend, what a deep snow Candies our country's woody brow? The yielding branch his load scarce bears, Oppress'd with snow and frozen tears; While the dumb rivers slowly float, All bound up in an icy coat. Let us meet then! and while this world In wild eccentrics now is hurl'd, Keep we, like nature, the same key, And walk in our forefathers' way. Why any more cast we an eye On what may come, not what is nigh? Why vex ourselves with fear or hope, And cares beyond our horoscope? Who into future times would peer, Looks oft beyond his time set here, And cannot go into those grounds But through a churchyard, which them bounds. Sorrows and sighs and searches spend, And draw our bottom to an end, But discreet joys lengthen the lease, Without which life were a disease; And who this age a mourner goes, Doth with his tears but feed his foes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPIRITUAL ISOLATION: A FRAGMENT by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE SCHOOL BOY, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE LAMENT FOR CULLODEN by ROBERT BURNS THE BIRTHNIGHT: TO F by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE |