Young men should not write sonnets, if they dream Some day to reach the bright bare seats of fame: To such, sweet thoughts and mighty feelings seem As though, like foreign things, they rarely came. Eager as men, when haply they have heard Of some new songster, some gay-feathered bird, That hath o'er blue seas strayed in hope to find In our thin foliage here a summer home -- Fain would they catch the bright things in their mind, And cage them into sonnets as they come. No; they should serve their wants most sparingly, Till the ripe time of song, when young thoughts fail, Then their sad sonnets, like old bards, might be Merry as youth, and yet gray-haired and hale. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE IMAGE OF GOD by FRANCISCO DE ALDANA BRITANNIA TO COLUMBIA by ALFRED AUSTIN THE BANKRUPT by JOSEPH BEAUMONT A MORNING PIECE; WRITTEN IN ABSENCE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A LEAVE-TAKING: 1 by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE BONNIE LASS OF ALBANY by ROBERT BURNS ODE TO A LADY WHOSE LOVER WAS KILLED BY A BALL by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |