Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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PHILOSOPHY. |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
PHILOSOPHY.
1
Why por'st thou, old Philosopher,Upon thy wormeat book,
When the winds are making such a stir,
And the leaves from the tree are shook?
Think'st thou from that dead page's Lore,
To strike Truth's warm lifespark?
No! thou mayst pore, and pore, and pore,
And make God's daylight dark.
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Like the spider thou spinnest, and spinnest on,The web of thy flimsy brain,
Some solid Truth breaks it, and thou anon
Must patch it up again.
Oh! look thou forth on the sunny Sky,
On the Earth, whose flowers are springing,
Or draw thy lore from the laughing Eye
Of the child, unconsciously singing.
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Wisdom is Bliss! to flourish and bloom,It asks both air and sun,
Like plants, when shut up in the studentsroom,
It loses its color anon!
Yea! Wisdom grows in the Wear and Tear
Of manycolored Life,
And the fruits which the closet alone doth bear,
In the open air ne'er thrive.
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Oh! wisdom comes by ear and eye,From their vast and ample domain,
From the changing face of humanity,
In joy, and sorrow, and pain:
And he who walks the same dull Round,
And views the selfsame things,
His heart, like his eye, hath a narrow bound,
And his soul has lost its wings.
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |