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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MORALITY, A FAMILIAR EPISTLE, by THOMAS MOORE Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Though long at school and college dozing Last Line: Wakening his world with looks of love! Alternate Author Name(s): Little, Thomas | |||
THOUGH long at school and college dozing, On books of rhyme and books of prosing, And copying from their moral pages, Fine recipes for forming sages; Though long with those divines at school, Who think to make us good by rule; Who, in methodic forms advancing, Teaching morality like dancing, Tell us, for Heaven or money's sake, What steps we are through life to take: Though thus, my friend, so long employ'd, And so much midnight oil destroy'd, I must confess, my searches past, I only learn'd to doubt at last. I find the doctors and the sages Have differ'd in all climes and ages, And two in fifty scarce agree On what is pure morality! 'Tis like the rainbow's shifting zone, And every vision makes its own. The doctors of the Porch advise, As modes of being great and wise, That we should cease to own or know The luxuries that from feeling flow. "Reason alone must claim direction, And Apathy 's the soul's perfection. Like a dull lake the heart must lie, Nor passion's gale nor pleasure's sigh, Though heaven the breeze, the breath supplied, Must curl the wave or swell the tide!" Such was the rigid Zeno's plan To form his philosophic man; Such were the modes he taught mankind To weed the garden of the mind; They tore away some weeds, 'tis true, But all the flowers were ravish'd too! Now listen to the wily strains, Which, on Cyrene's sandy plains, When Pleasure, nymph with loosen'd zone, Usurp'd the philosophic throne; Hear what the courtly sage's tongue To his surrounding pupils sung: "Pleasure 's the only noble end To which all human powers should tend, And Virtue gives her heavenly lore, But to make Pleasure please us more! Wisdom and she were both design'd To make the senses more refined, That man might revel, free from cloying, Then most a sage, when most enjoying!" Is this morality? -- Oh, no! E'en I a wiser path could show. The flower within this vase confined, The pure, the unfading flower of mind, Must not throw all its sweets away Upon a mortal mould of clay; No, no! its richest breath should rise In virtue's incense to the skies! But thus it is, all sects we see Have watch-words of morality! Some cry out Venus, others Jove; Here 'tis religion, there 'tis love! But while they thus so widely wander, While mystics dream, and doctors ponder; And some, in dialectics firm, Seek virtue in a middle term; While thus they strive, in Heaven's defiance To chain morality with science; The plain good man, whose actions teach More virtue than a sect can preach, Pursues his course, unsagely blest, His tutor whispering in his breast: Nor could he act a purer part, Though he had Tully all by heart; And when he drops the tear on woe, He little knows or cares to know That Epictetus blamed that tear, By Heaven approved, to virtue dear! Oh! when I've seen the morning beam Floating within the dimpled stream; While Nature, wakening from the night, Has just put on her robes of light, Have I, with cold optician's gaze, Explored the doctrine of those rays? No, pedants, I have left to you Nicely to separate hue from hue: Go, give that moment up to art, When Heaven and Nature claim the heart; And, dull to all their best attraction, Go -- measure angles of refraction! While I, in feeling's sweet romance, Look on each day-beam as a glance From the great eye of Him above, Wakening his world with looks of love! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A TEMPLE TO FRIENDSHIP by THOMAS MOORE AFTER THE BATTLE (OF AUGHRIM) by THOMAS MOORE BLACK AND BLUE EYES by THOMAS MOORE ECHO [OR, ECHOES] by THOMAS MOORE LALLA ROOKH: PARADISE AND THE PERI by THOMAS MOORE LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM by THOMAS MOORE O, BREATHE NOT HIS NAME! by THOMAS MOORE OH! BLAME NOT THE BARD by THOMAS MOORE PRO PATRIA MORI by THOMAS MOORE |
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