All other joys of life he strove to warm, <br />And magnify, and catch them to his lip: <br />But they had suffered shipwreck with the ship, <br />And gazed upon him sallow from the storm. <br />Or if Delusion came, 'twas but to show <br />The coming minute mock the one that went. <br />Cold as a mountain in its star-pitched tent, <br />Stood high Philosophy, less friend than foe: <br />Whom self-caged Passion, from its prison-bars, <br />Is always watching with a wondering hate. <br />Not till the fire is dying in the grate, <br />Look we for any kinship with the stars. <br />Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold, <br />And the great price we pay for it full worth: <br />We have it only when we are half earth. <br />Little avails that coinage to the old!<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-love-iv-all-other-joys-of-life/
