Knowledge to date is knowing with more than mind What never shall be known. Only as we With the near-sighted eye forecast and find Chips of perfection, white grains of symmetry, But never a glimpse of the working hand discover— Only as we press back the dark and flaw Of ignorance, shall the sick brain's lightning hover Above the charged simplicity of law. Not with a will to force but to evade The magnitude, must we draw to our task— Put whole things by, let beauty be mislaid, Break vanity to atoms, dare to ask And learn—not of the planets in their stations, But of the fruit-fly in its generations. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 14 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE HAUNTED OAK by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TO GOD AND IRELAND TRUE by ELLEN O'LEARY DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN THE MOURNER A LA MODE by JOHN GODFREY SAXE A BALLAD UPON A WEDDING by JOHN SUCKLING |