Our youth is like a rustic at the play That cries aloud in simple-hearted fear, Curses the villain, shudders at the fray, And weeps before the maiden's wreathed bier. Yet once familiar with the changeful show, He starts no longer at a brandished knife, But, his heart chastened at the sight of woe, Ponders the mirrored sorrows of his life. So tutored too, I watch the moving art Of all this magic and impassioned pain That tells the story of the human heart In a false instance, such as poets feign; I smile, and keep within the parchment furled That prompts the passions of this strutting world. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HERETIC: 3. MOCKERY by LOUIS UNTERMEYER GATHERING SONG OF DONALD [OR, DONUI DHU] THE BLACK by WALTER SCOTT REJECTED ADDRESSES: THE BABY'S DEBUT, BY W. W. by JAMES SMITH (1775-1839) TO A LOCOMOTIVE IN WINTER by WALT WHITMAN EXPLANATION by VIRGINIA A. ALLIN SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 36. STRONG, LIKE THE SEA by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |