 | The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe |  |
27
BOYS.
“The proper study of mankind is man,”—
The most perplexing one, no doubt, is woman,
The subtlest study that the mind can scan,
Of all deep problems, heavenly or human!
The most perplexing one, no doubt, is woman,
The subtlest study that the mind can scan,
Of all deep problems, heavenly or human!
But of all studies in the round of learning,
From nature's marvels down to human toys,
To minds well fitted for acute discerning,
The very queerest one is that of boys!
From nature's marvels down to human toys,
To minds well fitted for acute discerning,
The very queerest one is that of boys!
If to ask questions that would puzzle Plato,
And all the schoolmen of the Middle Age,—
If to make precepts worthy of old Cato,
Be deemed philosophy, your boy 's a sage!
And all the schoolmen of the Middle Age,—
If to make precepts worthy of old Cato,
Be deemed philosophy, your boy 's a sage!
If the possession of a teeming fancy
(Although, forsooth, the younker does n't know it),
Which he can use in rarest necromancy,
Be thought poetical, your boy 's a poet!
(Although, forsooth, the younker does n't know it),
Which he can use in rarest necromancy,
Be thought poetical, your boy 's a poet!
If a strong will and most courageous bearing,
If to be cruel as the Roman Nero;
If all that 's chivalrous, and all that 's daring,
Can make a hero, then the boy 's a hero!
If to be cruel as the Roman Nero;
If all that 's chivalrous, and all that 's daring,
Can make a hero, then the boy 's a hero!
But changing soon with his increasing stature,
The boy is lost in manhood's riper age,
And with him goes his former triple nature,—
No longer Poet, Hero, now, nor Sage!
The boy is lost in manhood's riper age,
And with him goes his former triple nature,—
No longer Poet, Hero, now, nor Sage!
| The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe | |