Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TWO POINTS OF VIEW: 2, by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO POINTS OF VIEW: 2, by                    
First Line: Because we have enjoyed the 'pure serene'
Last Line: Ideal truth would reconcile the two.
Subject(s): Business; Labor & Laborers; Businessmen; Businesswomen; Work; Workers


Because we have enjoyed the "pure serene"
Of Plato's discourse or the Attic scene—
Which you have not—because our hearts still stir
To the "long roll of the hexameter,"
Are we for this to be exposed to mock,
As stocked in verses, but unversed in stock?
Who, pray, are you that you should thus dictate,
And judge of culture by the discount rate?
"A business man," we hear your blatant cry,
"What I pronounce, the law must ratify."
You and your fellows in the filthy mart,
Dare to impose on morals, statecraft, art?
Except wherein your business has to do,
What value has your "business point of view"?
Go, learn that lucre is the means, not end,
Not life's sole asset, only dividend;
And when at night your roll-top desk you clear
And from the telephone detach your ear,
Look upward, outward, round you, if you can—
Machine at work, but sometimes too, a man.

Thus each contending; neither wholly true.
Ideal truth would reconcile the two.





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