Life is a task which takes a life to know;
How it is learnt another life must show.
LIFE.
Life is a long enigma; true, my friend;
Read on, read on, the answer's at the end.
LIFE'S GARDEN.
Life's garden tilled with toil and tears we see;
No Paradise, sometimes Gethsemane.
LIGHT AND SHADE.
He never marked the sunshine on his track,
Till from the chilly shadows he looked back.
LITERARY QUARRELS.
Hard thrusts and ink shed mark the scribbler's strife,
Charge, counter-charge, war to the paper-knife.
LIMPNESS.
Your feeble minds and self-indulgent wills,
Are patients ready to gulp Satan's pills.
LOVE.
Let not Love sleep cocoon-like, self-infurled,
Spin the fair silk, O man, and clothe the world.
LOVE THE TYRANT.
Sweet playfellow is Love, but let him rule,
A tyrant he becomes, and you his fool.
LOVE AND TRUTH.
Love without Truth is but a bubble fair;
Burst through the glitter, and your joy is air.
MAN'S VIEW OF PROVIDENCE.
What suits their turn is providential all;
That which does not by other names they call.
OBSCURE SPECULATION.
If "fools rush in where angels fear to tread,"
When wise men follow what is to be said?
ORIGINALITY.
A dexterous following is admired by all,
But few dare praise the brave original.
PAINTERS.
Painters are men, and haply Claude and Titian
Discussed as we brown pink, and composition.
PEACE AND WAR.
Broken is many a heart by war accurst;
Some think by peace and plenty they would burst.
POINT OF VIEW.
He views all subjects from one point alone;
Need it be said that point is just his own?
PRE-RAFFAELITES.
Make to the whole subservient every part;
Your piecemeal excellence shows skill not art.
PRIDE.
"I have no pride, not I," the donkey cries;
"What can an ass be proud of?" fox replies.
PRIDE IN SMALL MATTERS.
"How splendidly I milk!" you make me laugh;
Who milks a cow the best must be a calf!
PROOF OF WORTH.
Slight not the world, but still console thy breast
When those esteem thee most who know thee best.
RECRIMINATION.
Do not recriminate; that biting strain
Backward and forward will saw love in twain.
SCHOLARSHIP.
For scholarship few read, not one in twenty;
But make it Fellowship, and you'll find plenty.
SCRIPTURE AND PRIDE.
Who weighs his worth by God's eternal word
Finds pride a curse, and vanity absurd.
SELF.
On your own merits to descant be shy,
Or false, or true, the end is vanity.
SELF-LOVE.
Monimia's constancy we all must feel,
She loves herself, and is as true as steel.
SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON.
A lofty Christian shrine our Milton is,
But Shakspeare is the world's metropolis.
SLOW WIFE AND FAST HUSBAND.
On his wild ways as calmly smileth she,
As the May moon upon a roaring sea.
SORROW.
Sorrow's dark storm he blesses through all years
Who finds the priceless pearl among his tears.
TENNYSON AND PETRARCH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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