Quarrels have long been in vogue among sages' Still, though in many things wranglers and rancorous, All the philosopher-scribes of all ages Join, @3una voce,@1 on one point to anchor us. Here is the gist of their mystified pages, Here is the wisdom we purchase with gold -- @3Children of Light, leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness; Berries were bitter in forests of old.@1 Hoary old Merlin, that great necromancer, Made me, a student, a similar answer, When I besought him for light and for lore: @3Toiler in vain! leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness; Granite was hard in the quarries of yore.@1 And on the ice-crested heights of Armenia, And in the valleys of broad Abyssinia, Still spake the Oracle just as before: @3Wouldst thou have peace, leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures and fools to their foolishness; Beetles were blind in the ages of yore.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHADOWY WATERS: A DRAMATIC POEM by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS A DEATH IN THE DESERT by ROBERT BROWNING HIPPOLYTUS TEMPORIZES by HILDA DOOLITTLE THE FARM CHILD'S LULLABY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SONGS OF TRAVEL: 1. THE VAGABOND by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE MOTHER'S LAMENT by BERNARD BARTON |