THERE'S room for most things: Tropic seas, Poll-parrots, beer, the Vicar's teas, June nights, transparent Winter dawns, Tulips ablaze on Summer lawns, Queer jungle fruits of mammoth size, And gay Brazilian butterflies; Chalk cliffs built up of tiny shells, Delicate mist and faint bluebells, The sparrow's brown, the peacock's tail, Cathedrals, Florence Nightingale, Gaby Deslys, Paris, the small Village tucked snugly round the Hall.— Yes, room for all if only each Will live content, nor strive to preach Its own perfection as the end Towards which the Universe should tend. As long as daisies don't complain The whole world's not a daisy-chain, Or flaunting tropic birds condemn To ridicule the sober hen; As long as each with his own shape Is satisfied—nor tries to ape Another's: When the crow puts on The peacock's plumes, his charm is gone. Will o' the Wisp though shining bright Won't keep your kitchen fires alight; Tame wolves are not domestic cats, Or fauns less fauns for bowler-hats. Let neither Faun nor Saint reprove Others for different ways of love, Life and delight—there's room for wings And feet, for wine and water-springs, For things that walk and things that dance, For Iceland and the South of France, For lake and village-pump and sea, For You—but also room for Me! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: LYMAN KING by EDGAR LEE MASTERS REGARDING CHAINSAWS by HAYDEN CARRUTH SONG:SO WHY DOES THIS DEAD CARNATION by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE BIRDS OF VIETNAM by HAYDEN CARRUTH AFTER VERLAINE by ANSELM HOLLO GETHSEMANE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |