No! cover not the fault. The wise revere The judgment of the simple. Harshly flow The words of counsel; but the end may show Matter and music to the unwilling ear. But perfect grief, like love, should cast out fear And like an o'erbrimmed river moaning go. Yet shrinks it from the senseless chaff and chat Of those who smile and insolently bestow Their ignorant praise, or those who stoop and peer To pick with sharpened fingers for a flaw, Nor ever touch the quick, nor rub the raw. Better than this were surgery rough as that Which, hammer and chisel in hand, at one sharp blow Strikes out the wild tooth from a horse's jaw. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A CANADIAN BOAT SONG; WRITTEN ON THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE by THOMAS MOORE PARAPHRASE ON THOMAS A KEMPIS by ALEXANDER POPE VAN ELSEN by FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT LOUIS XV by JOHN STERLING (1806-1844) |