Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY: OF READING, by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY: OF READING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Read not milton, for he is dry, nor shakespeare
Last Line: And if thou canst not realize the ideal, thou shalt at least idealize the real.
Subject(s): Books; Tupper, Martin Farquhar (1810-1889); Imitation; Humor; Reading


Read not Milton, for he is dry; nor Shakespeare, for he wrote of common life:
Nor Scott, for his romances, though fascinating, are yet intelligible:
Nor Thackeray, for he is a Hogarth, a photographer who flattereth not:
Nor Kingsley, for he shall teach thee that thou shouldest not dream, but do.
Read incessantly thy Burke; that Burke who, nobler than he of old,
Treateth of the Peer and Peeress, the truly Sublime and Beautiful:
Likewise study the "creations" of "the Prince of modern Romance;"
Sigh over Leonard the Martyr, and smile on Pelham the puppy:
Learn how "love is the dram-drinking of existence;"
And how we "invoke, in the Gadara of our still closets,
The beautiful ghost of the Ideal, with the simple wand of the pen."
Listen how Maltravers and the orphan "forgot all but love,"
And how Devereux's family chaplain "made and unmade kings:"
How Eugene Aram, though a thief, a liar, and a murderer,
Yet, being intellectual, was amongst the noblest of mankind.
So shalt thou live in a world peopled with heroes and master-spirits;
And if thou canst not realize the Ideal, thou shalt at least idealize the Real.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net