What Man May Learn, What Man May Do
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
WHAT man may learn, what man may do,
Of right or wrong of false or true,
While, skipper-like, his course he steers
Through nine and twenty mingled years,
Half misconceived and half forgot,
So much I know and practise not.
Old are the words of wisdom, old
The counsels of the wise and bold:
To close the ears, to check the tongue,
To keep the pining spirit young;
To act the right, to say the true,
And to be kind whate'er you do.
Thus we across the modern stage
Follow the wise of every age;
And, as oaks grow and rivers run
Unchanged in the unchanging sun,
So the eternal march of man
Goes forth on an eternal plan.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 168 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEAA FFGGHH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 607 |
Words | 121 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
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"What Man May Learn, What Man May Do" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31748/what-man-may-learn,-what-man-may-do>.
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