'On court, helas! apres la verite; Ah! croyez-mon, l'erreur a son merite.' -- VOLTAIRE. CURLED in a maze of dolls and bricks, I find Miss Mary, aetat six, Blonde, blue-eyed, frank, capricious, Absorbed in her first fairy book, From which she scarce can pause to look, Because it's 'so delicious!' 'Such marvels, too. A wondrous Boat, In which they cross a magic Moat, That's smooth as glass to row on -- A Cat that brings all kinds of things; And see, the Queen has angel wings -- Then OGRE comes' -- and so on. What trash it is! How sad to find (Dear Moralist!) the childish mind, So active and so pliant, Rejecting themes in which you mix Fond truths with pleasing facts, to fix On tales of Dwarf and Giant! In merest prudence men should teach That cats mellifluous in speech Are painful contradictions; That science ranks as monstrous things Two pairs of upper limbs; so wings -- E'en angel's wings! -- are fictions; That there's no giant now but Steam; That life, although 'an empty dream,' Is scarce a 'land of Fairy.' 'Of course I said all this?' Why, no; I did a thing far wiser, though, -- I read the tale with Mary. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE MOON by HAYDEN CARRUTH OLNEY HYMNS: 1. WALKING WITH GOD by WILLIAM COWPER WISHES TO HIS SUPPOSED MISTRESS by RICHARD CRASHAW CHANSON INNOCENTE: 2, FR. TULIPS by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS MY AUNT by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |