THE Poet's License! -- Some there are Who hold the false opinion 'T is but a meagre privilege Confined to Art's dominion; The right to rhyme quite unrestrained By certain rigid fetters Which bind the colder men of prose Within the realm of letters. Ah no! -- I deem 't is something more, And something vastly higher, To which the proudest bard on earth May worthily aspire. The Poet's License! -- 't is the right, Within the rule of duty, To look on all delightful things Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars That in the skies are glowing; To see the gems of perfect dye That in the woods are growing, And more than sage astronomer, And more than learned florist, To read the glorious homilies Of Firmament and Forest. When Nature gives a gorgeous rose, Or yields the simplest fern, She writes this motto on the leaves, -- "To whom it may concern!" And so it is the poet comes And revels in her bowers, And, though another hold the land, Is owner of the flowers. O, nevermore let Ignorance With heedless iteration Repeat the phrase as meaning aught Of trivial estimation; The Poet's License! -- 't is the fee Of earth and sky and river To him who views them royally, To have and hold forever! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEFORE SEDAN by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON HERMES OF THE WAYS by HILDA DOOLITTLE THE BELFRY PIGEON by NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS REMINDER by INDRAN AMIRTHANAYAGAM THE BUS by MABEL WARREN ARNOLD OCTOBER FROM A BUS WINDOW by ELLA MCBRIDE BALLEW STANZAS, ON THE DEATH OF LIEUT. P. by BERNARD BARTON |