BRAIN! you must work! begin, or we shall lose The day while yet we only think upon it. The hours run on, and yet you will not chuse The subject—come—ode, elegy, or sonnet. You must contribute, brain! in this hard time; Taxes are high, food dear, and you must rhyme. 'Twere well if when I rubb'd my itchless head, The fingers with benignant stimulation Could through the medullary substance spread The motions of poetic inspiration; But scratch, or knock, or shake my head about, The motions may go in, but nought comes out. The natural head, consider good my brain, To the head politic bears some allusion; The limbs and body must support your reign, And all when you do wrong is in confusion. But caput mine, in truth I can't support A head as lazy as if born at court. The verse goes on, and we shall have, my friend, A poem ere the subject we determine. But everything should have some useful end. That single line itself is worth a sermon! The moral point as obvious is as good,— So gentle brain! I thank you and conclude. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TRANSLUCENT FINGERS by MALCOLM COWLEY A POEM FROM BOULDER RIDGE by JAMES GALVIN PERSPECTIVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON A YOUNG LADY'S SIXTH ANNIVERSARY by KATHERINE MANSFIELD EILEEN AROON by GERALD JOSEPH GRIFFIN |