The Poetry of Real Life A New Edition, Much Enlarged and Improved. By Henry Ellison |
THE DANGER OF ATTEMPTING SUDDENLY TO ROOT OUT
NATIONAL PREJUDICES. |
The Poetry of Real Life | ||
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THE DANGER OF ATTEMPTING SUDDENLY TO ROOT OUT NATIONAL PREJUDICES.
The lesser accidents of time and place,The old, memorial modes of thinking: all
The spider-threads of habit, which, though small,
Bind us insensibly, and our free pace
Break to the hackneyed step, devoid of grace
As freedom, into which the world doth fall,
That ass, which runs one round perpetual,
With pack upon its back, and formal face!
All these, as Samson his green wythés, I
Have rent in twain with ease—but some there are,
Deep prejudices, stronger, wider, far—
And they who would pluck up these suddenly,
As Samson did the temple-pillar, by
Their fall must fall, with those 'gainst whom they war!
The Poetry of Real Life | ||