Thus Dulness, the safe Opiate of the Mind, The last kind Refuge weary Wit can find, Fit for all Stations, and in each content Is satisfy'd, secure, and innocent: No Pains it takes, and no Offence it gives, Un-fear'd, un-hated, un-disturb'd it lives. -- And if each writing Author's best pretence, Be but to teach the Ignorant more Sense; Then Dulness was the Cause they wrote before, As 'tis at last the Cause they write no more; So Wit, which most to scorn it does pretend, With Dulness first began, in Dulness last must end. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MEMORIAL VERSES by MATTHEW ARNOLD SONNET: WRITTEN ON THE DAY THAT MR. LEIGH HUNT LEFT PRISON by JOHN KEATS THE BLACKBIRD by ALFRED TENNYSON ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 11. ON LOVE - TO A FRIEND by MARK AKENSIDE AN AUTUMN NIGHT by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 9. AL-HATHIM by EDWIN ARNOLD CORRESPONDENCES by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE |