Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIFE, by HORACE SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LIFE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There are who think this scene of life
Last Line: Unaided by abuses.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Subject(s): Charm; Life; Nature


THERE are who think this scene of life
A frightful gladiatorial strife,
A struggle for existence,
Where class contends with class, and each
Must plunder all within his reach,
To earn his own subsistence.

Shocked at the internecine air
Of this Arena, they forswear
Its passions and its quarrels;
They will not sacrifice, to live,
All that to life its charms can give,
Nor sell for bread their morals

Enthusiasts! check your reveries,
Ye cannot always pluck at ease
From Pleasure's cornucopia;
Ye cannot alter Nature's plan,
Change to a perfect being Man,
Nor England to Utopia.

Plunge in the busy current -- stem
The tide of errors ye condemn,
And fill life's active uses;
Begin reform yourselves, and live
To prove that Honesty may thrive
Unaided by abuses.





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