Who says that fictions only and false hair Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty? Is all good structure in a winding stair? May no lines pass, except they do their duty Not to a true, but painted chair? Is it no verse, except enchanted groves And sudden arbors shadow coarse-spun lines? Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves? Must all be veiled while he that reads, divines, Catching the sense at two removes? Shepherds are honest people; let them sing: Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime: I envy no man's nightingale or spring; Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme, Who plainly say, My God, My King. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PICKET-GUARD [NOVEMBER, 1861] by ETHEL LYNN BEERS THE BIGLOW PAPERS. 2D SERIES. THE COURTIN' by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL BY THE PACIFIC OCEAN by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER TREES AND WAVES by AL-ISRA'ILI A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER by JOANNA BAILLIE ESTEEMING THE BIBLE by HORATIO (HORATIUS) BONAR |