I have achieved the life of contemplation, My paws are clean, I have not touched the mire, I do not bark and yelp in irritation But wait for satisfactions I require. Life may pass by, the months pile higher and higher, I am secure: two meals a day, a carriage In which to take the air, a pleasant fire To dream before, and periodic marriage. I have anaesthetized all my ambition And paradoxically serve another's; Existence has become a noble mission -- Admiring me, competitors are brothers, And when they pin a ribbon on my neck Feel it to be themselves they thus bedeck. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ONCE BY THE PACIFIC by ROBERT FROST SONNET: SILENCE by THOMAS HOOD THE LOW-DOWN WHITE by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE THE COMBAT, BETWEENE CONSCIENCE AND COVETOUSNESSE by RICHARD BARNFIELD FORGETFULNESS by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH DIXIT, ET IN MENSAM by CHARLES WILLIAM SHIRLEY BROOKS FLEUR DE LIS by GRACE EVELYN BROWN |