WHEN Dryden's fool, 'unknowing what he sought,' His hours in whistling spent, 'for want of thought,' This guiltless oaf his vacancy of sense Supplied, and amply too, by innocence; Did modern swains, possess'd of Cymon's powers, In Cymon's manner waste their leisure hours, The offended guests would not, with blushing, see These fair green walks disgraced by infamy. Severe the fate of modern fools, alas! When vice and folly mark them as they pass. Like noxious reptiles o'er the whiten'd wall, The filth they leave still points out where they crawl. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SEA AND THE SKYLARK by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS IMITATIONS OF HORACE: ODE IV, 1 by ALEXANDER POPE MAUBERLEY: 5. MEDALLION by EZRA POUND THE TUTELAGE by ROBERT MOWRY BELL ON THE WATERFRONT by WILLIAM ROSE BENET PSALM 63 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |