Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE POET PERPLEXT, by ROBERT SOUTHEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE POET PERPLEXT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Brain! You must work! Begin, or we shall lose
Last Line: So gentle brain! I thank you and conclude.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Reason; Writer's Block; Writing & Writers; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


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.





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