Life is a long discovery, isn't it? You only get your wisdom bit by bit. If you have luck you find in it in early youth How dangerous it is to tell the Truth; And next you learn how dignity and peace Are the ripe fruits of patient avarice. You find that middle life goes racing past. You find despair: and, at the very last, You find as you are giving up the ghost That those who loved you best despised you most. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A SKYLARK by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE PRINCESS: SONG by ALFRED TENNYSON THE SAILOR BOY by ALFRED TENNYSON SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAY-BREAK by WALT WHITMAN AN OLD SONG by SOLOMON BLOOMGARDEN ABER STATIONS: STATIO PRIMA by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN JEHANE by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR |