I HOLD that the true age of wisdom is when We are boys and girls, and not women and men, -- When as credulous children we @3know@1 things because We @3believe@1 them -- however averse to the laws. It is @3faith,@1 then, not science and reason, I say, That is genuine wisdom. -- And would that to-day We, as then, were as wise and ineffably blest As to live, love and die, and trust God for the rest! So I simply deny the old notion, you know, That the wiser we get as the older we grow! -- For @3in youth@1 all we know we are @3certain@1 of. -- @3Now@1 The greater our knowledge, the more we allow For skeptical margin. -- And hence I regret That the world isn't flat, and the sun doesn't set, And we may not go creeping up home, when we die, Through the moon, like a round yellow hole in the sky. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ANNIVERSARY [ANNIVERSARIE] by JOHN DONNE LOVE'S JUSTIFICATION by MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI UNREASONABLE REASON by JOSEPH BEAUMONT ECCE IN DESERTO by HENRY AUGUSTIN BEERS THE BURIAL OF LOVE by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE CARNIVAL OF 1848 by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER |