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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A FRAGMENT, by HUMPHRY DAVY First Line: It is alone in solitude we feel Last Line: Imagination wild, -- interminable! Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness | |||
IT is alone in solitude we feel And know what powers belong to us. By sympathy excited, and constrain'd By tedious ceremony in the world, Many whom we are fit to lead we follow; And fools, and confident men, and those who think Themselves all knowing, from the littleness Of their own talents and the sphere they move in, Which is most little, -- these do rule the world; Even like the poet's dream of elder time The fabled Titans imaged to aspire Unto the infinitely distant heaven, Because they raised a pile of common stones, And higher stood than those around them. -- The great is ever Obscure, indefinite; and knowledge still, The highest, the most distant, most sublime, Is like the stars composed of luminous points, But without visible image, or known distance. E'en with respect to human things and forms, We estimate and know them but in solitude. The eye of the worldly man is insect-like, Fit only for the near and single objects; The true philosopher in distance sees them, And scans their forms, their bearings, and relations. To view a lovely landscape in its whole, We do not fix upon one cave or rock, Or woody hill, out of the mighty range Of the wide scenery, -- we rather mount A lofty knoll to mark the varied whole, -- The waters blue, the mountains gray and dim, The shaggy hills and the embattled cliffs, With their mysterious glens, awakening Imagination wild, -- interminable! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN ABEYANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV IN A VACANT HOUSE by PHILIP LEVINE SUNDAY ALONE IN A FIFTH FLOOR APARTMENT, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS SILENCE LIKE COOL SAND by PAT MORA |
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