Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO SOUTHEY, by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: There are who teach us that the depths of thought Last Line: Proclaiming this shall live, and this shall die. Subject(s): Southey, Robert (1774-1843) | ||||||||
There are who teach us that the depths of thought Engulph the poet; that irregular Is every greater one. Go, Southey! mount Up to these teachers; ask, submissively, Who so proportioned as the lord of day? Yet mortals see his stedfast stately course And lower their eyes before him. Fools gaze up Amazed at daring flights. Does Homer soar As hawks and kites and weaker swallows do? He knows the swineherd; he plants apple-trees Amid Alcinous's cypresses; He covers with his aged black-vein'd hand The plumy crest that frighten'd and made cling To its fond-mother the ill-fated child; He walks along Olympus with the Gods, Complacently and calmly, as along The sands where Simois glides into the sea. They who step high and swing their arms, soon tire. The glorious Theban then? The sage from Thebes, Who sang his wisdom when the strife of cars And combatants had paus'd, deserves more praise Than this untrue one, fitter for the weak, Who by the lightest breezes are borne up And with the dust and straws are swept away; Who fancy they are carried far aloft When nothing quite distinctly they descry, Having lost all self-guidance. But strong men Are strongest with their feet upon the ground. Light-bodied Fancy, Fancy plover-winged, Draws some away from culture to dry downs Where none but insects find their nutriment; There let us leave them to their sleep and dreams. Great is that poet, great is he alone, Who rises o'er the creatures of the earth, Yet only where his eye may well discern The various movements of the human heart, And how each mortal differs from the rest. Although he struggle hard with Poverty, He dares assert his just prerogative To stand above all perishable things, Proclaiming this shall live, and this shall die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VISION OF JUDGEMENT by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY AND THE KNIFE-GRINDER by GEORGE CANNING FATHER WILLIAM [QUESTIONED], FR. ALICE IN WONDERLAND by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON TO ROBERT SOUTHEY by MARIA GOWEN BROOKS INSCRIPTION FOR THE DOOR OF [BROWNRIGG'S] CELL IN NEWGATE by GEORGE CANNING SONNETS ON EMINENT CHARACTERS: 10. TO ROBERT SOUTHEY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE QUINTESSENCE OF ALL THE DACTYLICS by WILLIAM GIFFORD THE BATTUE OF BERLIN by HARRY GRAHAM ON SOUTHEY'S BIRTHDAY, NOV 4 by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR A FIESOLAN IDYL by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR |
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