Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THREE WISE FOOLS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I met two men upon the road
Last Line: Or worshipper of cheese.
Subject(s): Cheese; Girls; Moon


I met two men upon the road
That leads to Derrytown;
All day we trudged the stony miles,
At night we lay us down.

Sprawling by a billowy flame,
We gazed below the hill,
And saw a placid bayou there,
Very blue and still.

And sunken in the pool, a globe,
With silver round-about, --
A sphere as creamy-white and smooth
As the milt of any trout.

I asked my friends, what is this thing?
This world within the sea?
This silver sunken in the blue?
Pray tell, what may it be?

"The imaged moon," the scholar laughed,
"A thing of snow and shale,
As common as this grain of sand,
Or the dirt beneath your nail."

Yet I was loath to believe the sage,
For once he'd said to me:
"This spider, crawling on my thumb,
Is man's analogy."

But when I watched the bug one day,
I never heard it sing,
I never saw it laugh or dance,
Or do a gentle thing.

"Ah, no! a virgin!" the dreamer cried,
"Chastely beautiful;
Contemplating, as she bathes,
Her image in the pool."

But when I held my glass to note
This vestal in the sky,
I saw a smudge upon her breast,
And a very knowing eye!

And lo! at last I understood --
It came to me at dawn --
No moon it was, no spotless nun,
This thing we gazed upon:

An old man searching in the sky
For something never there,
And seeking in the limpid pond
To drown his gray despair.

My comrades laughed and called me mad;
But better a fool than these:
Huntsman, seeking silver crows,
Or worshipper of cheese.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net