Be not too wildly amorous of the far, Nor lure thy fantasy to its utmost scope. Read by a taper when the needling star Burns red with menace in heaven's midnight cope. Friendly thy body: guard its solitude. Sure shelter is thy heart. It once had rest Where founts miraculous thy lips endewed, Yet nought loomed further than thy mother's breast. O brave adventure! Ay, at danger slake Thy thirst, lest life in thee should, sickening, quail; But not toward nightmare goad a mind awake, Nor to forbidden horizons bend thy sail -- Seductive outskirts whence in trance prolonged Thy gaze, at stretch of what is sane-secure, Dreams out on steeps by shapes demoniac thronged And vales wherein alone the dead endure. Nectarous those flowers, yet with venom sweet. Thick-juiced with poison hang those fruits that shine Where sick phantasmal moonbeams brood and beat, And dark imaginations ripe the vine. Bethink thee: every enticing league thou wend Beyond the mark where life its bound hath set Will lead thee at length where human pathways end And the dark enemy spreads his maddening net. Comfort thee, comfort thee. Thy Father knows How wild man's ardent spirit, fainting, yearns For mortal glimpse of death's immortal rose, The garden where the invisible blossom burns. Humble thy trembling knees; confess thy pride; Be weary. Oh, whithersoever thy vaunting rove, His deepest wisdom harbours in thy side, In thine own bosom hides His utmost love. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ANGEL, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE UNDOMESTICATED ANIMALS by BERTON BRALEY THE FOURFOLD ASPECT by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING LINES WRITTEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER PARTING FROM A LADY by SAMUEL EGERTON BRYDGES MYSTERY by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT THE OLD DOG by ANITA GRAY CHANDLER THE CANTERBURY TALES: THE PRIORESS'S TALE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER |