Whither, Mad maiden wilt thou roame? Farre safer 'twere to stay at home: Where thou mayst sit, and piping please The poore and private Cottages. Since Coats, and Hamlets, best agree With this thy meaner Minstralsie. There with the Reed, thou mayst expresse The Shepherds Fleecie happinesse: And with thy Eclogues intermixe Some smooth, and harmlesse Beucolicks. There on a Hillock thou mayst sing Unto a handsome Shephardling; Or to a Girle (that keeps the Neat) With breath more sweet then Violet. There, there, (perhaps) such Lines as These May take the simple Villages. But for the Court, the Country wit Is despicable unto it. Stay then at home, and doe not goe Or flie abroad to seeke for woe. Contempts in Courts and Cities dwell; No Critick haunts the Poore mans Cell: Where thou mayst hear thine own Lines read By no one tongue, there, censured. That man's unwise will search for Ill, And may prevent it, sitting still. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RIVALS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON CRITIC AND POET by EMMA LAZARUS EPITAPH IN A CHURCH-YARD IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA by AMY LOWELL THE WISE WOMAN by LOUIS UNTERMEYER ECHO AND SILENCE by SAMUEL EGERTON BRYDGES |