When you have lain for weeks together On such a noble river's breast, And learnt its face in every weather, And loved its motions and its rest, -- 'Tis hard at some appointed place To check your course and turn your prow, And objects for themselves retrace You past with added hope just now. The silent highway forward beckons, And all the bars that reason plants Now disappointed fancy reckons As foolish fears or selfish wants. The very rapids, rocks, and shoals Seem but temptations which the stream Holds out to energetic souls, That worthy of its love may seem. But life is full of limits; heed not One more or less -- the forward track May often give you what you need not, While wisdom waits on turning back. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLAD OF THE LORDS OF OLD TIME by FRANCOIS VILLON AN INTERVIEW WITH MILES STANDISH by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH by THOMAS PARNELL ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 12. ON RECOVERING FROM A FIT OF SICKNESS IN COUNTRY by MARK AKENSIDE WHEN THE SULTAN GOES TO ISPAHAN by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH JOURNEY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN AN OLD DREAM by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE WELL by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: KING LIMOS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |