Orbler
Byron Twain
Brenton
Dexter
Jeanne Dininni
Shilpa KarhikAn Exhortation by Percy Bysshe Shelley
October 5th 2006 23:16
An Exhortation
Chameleons feed on light and air:
Poets' food is love and fame:
If in this wide world of care
Poets could but find the same
With as little toil as they,
Would they ever change their hue
As the light chameleons do,
Suiting it to every ray
Twenty times a day?
Poets are on this cold earth,
As chameleons might be,
Hidden from their early birth
In a cave beneath the sea;
Where light is, chameleons change:
Where love is not, poets do:
Fame is love disguised: if few
Find either, never think it strange
That poets range.
Yet dare not stain with wealth or power
A poet's free and heavenly mind:
If bright chameleons should devour
Any food but beams and wind,
They would grow as earthly soon
As their brother lizards are.
Children of a sunnier star,
Spirits from beyond the moon,
O, refuse the boon!
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Chameleons feed on light and air:
Poets' food is love and fame:
If in this wide world of care
Poets could but find the same
With as little toil as they,
Would they ever change their hue
As the light chameleons do,
Suiting it to every ray
Twenty times a day?
Poets are on this cold earth,
As chameleons might be,
Hidden from their early birth
In a cave beneath the sea;
Where light is, chameleons change:
Where love is not, poets do:
Fame is love disguised: if few
Find either, never think it strange
That poets range.
Yet dare not stain with wealth or power
A poet's free and heavenly mind:
If bright chameleons should devour
Any food but beams and wind,
They would grow as earthly soon
As their brother lizards are.
Children of a sunnier star,
Spirits from beyond the moon,
O, refuse the boon!
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
I am yours daily for my fix - to touch base - to feel again.
Thanks for the great daily read and for making me so welcome whe nI first joined.
How do you chose which poem you will feature each day? Is it a mood thing?
I love it!
Lilla
Comment by jasmine
Poems are moody entities, aren't they, and so an I for that matter! I look for poems and poets to feature who are wonderful wordsmiths, but who don't really rate a mention in today's technological world. If you know any good poems or poets I'd love to hear about them.
thanks from jasmine
Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen
And by the way, what's your favourite type of poetry? The one poem that sticks in my head the most is this poem I read once from a magazine. It was about miso soup.
Comment by katyzzz
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