'TIS true the wisdom that my mind exacts Through contemplation from a heart unbent By many tempests may be stained and rent: The summer flies it mightily attracts. Yet they seem choicer than your sons of facts, Which scarce give breathing of the sty's content For their diurnal carnal nourishment: Which treat with Nature in official pacts. The deader body Nature could proclaim. Much life have neither. Let the heavens of wrath Rattle, then both scud scattering to froth. But during calms the flies of idle aim Less put the spirit out, less baffle thirst For light than swinish grunters, blest or curst. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOLACE by CLARISSA SCOTT DELANY A TERNARIE OF LITTLES, UPON A PIPKIN OF JELLIE by ROBERT HERRICK THE ARGUMENT OF HIS BOOK by ROBERT HERRICK ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BOUTS RIMES IN PRAISE OF OLD MAIDS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE TWO FLAMES by ELOISE BRITON THE FIRST WAITS; A MEDITATION FOR ALL by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK |