[DOMESTIC DIDACTICS BY AN OLD SERVANT] WHAT's life but full of care and doubt, With all its fine humanities, With parasols we walk about, Long pigtails and such vanities. We plant pomegranate trees and things, And go in gardens sporting, With toys and fans of peacock's wings, To painted ladies courting. We gather flowers of every hue, And fish in boats for fishes, Build summer-houses painted blue, But life's as frail as dishes. Walking about their groves of trees, Blue bridges and blue rivers, How little thought them two Chinese, They'd both be smashed to shivers. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPRING SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ULTIMA THULE: NIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WOODS IN WINTER by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE CENCI; A TRAGEDY: ACTS 4-5 by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE SWAMP FOX by WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS SONG TOURNAMENT: NEW STYLE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER DIRGE FOR THE LATE JAMES CURRIE, M.D., OF LIVERPOOL by LUCY AIKEN |