"WRITE a poem -- solemn -- earnest -- Worthy of your muse!" Ah! when loving lips command me, How can I refuse? But the subject! -- that's the pother -- What am I to choose? War? The theme is something hackneyed; Since old Homer's time, Half the minstrels, large and little, Have been making rhyme With intent to prove that murder (Wholesale) is sublime! Love? A most delicious topic; But how many score, Nay, how many thousand poets Deal in Cupid's lore, From Anacreon to Catullus, Not to mention Moore. Grief? Ah! little joy has Sorrow In the mimic art; Can the lyre's melodious moaning Ease the mourner's smart, Though the strings were very fibres Of the player's heart? Nature, -- posies, woods and waters? Everlasting themes, -- Can the poets, in the rapture Of their finest dreams, Paint the lily of the valley Fairer than she seems? Metaphysics? Quite in fashion, -- But Apollo's curse Blasts the syllogistic rhymer; Why should I rehearse Kant in cantos, or old Plato Torture into verse? Humor, satire, fun, and fancy, Wit with wisdom blent, -- These, to give my Muse amusement, Heaven has kindly lent; Let her live and die a-laughing, I shall be content! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BATTLE-CRIES by LOUIS UNTERMEYER ODE FOR THE BURIAL OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT BOUND NO'TH BLUES by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES NEGRO by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES BUCOLIC COMEDY: AUBADE by EDITH SITWELL THE DISCOVERY; SONNET by JOHN COLLINGS SQUIRE |