@3Stanza@1 I. OFT have I ponder'd in my pensive heart, When even from myself I've stol'n away, And heavily consider'd many a day, The cause of all my anguish and my smart: Sometimes besides a shady grove (As dark as were my thoughts, as close as was my Love), Dejected have I walk'd alone, Acquainting scarce myself with my own moan. Once I resolv'd undauntedly to hear What 'twas my passions had to say, To find the reason of that uproar there, And calmly, if I could, to end the fray: No sooner was my resolution known But I was all confusion. Fierce Anger, flattering Hope, and black Despair, Bloody Revenge, and most ignoble Fear, Now altogether clamorous were; My breast a perfect chaos grown, A mass of nameless things together hurl'd, Like th' formless embryo of the unborn world, Just as it's rousing from eternal night, Before the great Creator said, @3Let there be Light@1. II. Thrice happy then are beasts, said I, That underneath these pleasant coverts lie, They only sleep, and eat, and drink, They never meditate, nor think; Or if they do, have not th' unhappy art To vent the overflowings of their heart; They without trouble live, without disorder die, Regardless of Eternity. I said, I would like them be wise, And not perplex myself in vain, Nor bite th' uneasy chain, No, no, said I, I will Philosophise! And all th' ill-natur'd World despise: But when I had reflected long, And with deliberation thought How few have practis'd what they gravely taught, (Tho' 'tis but folly to complain) I judg'd it worth a generous disdain, And brave defiance in Pindaric song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN WALKED BUD WITH A PALETTE by CLARENCE MAJOR THE TASK: BOOK 4. THE WINTER EVENING by WILLIAM COWPER A SEA SONG by ALLAN CUNNINGHAM THE HILL WIFE: THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM by ROBERT FROST HYMN: FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY: 2 by REGINALD HEBER MOTHER TO SON by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES WRITTEN ON THE DEATH OF OUR BELOVED GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON by CAROLINE AUGUSTA BALL |