If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line, as a man <br />of culture rare, <br />You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and <br />plant them everywhere. <br />You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of <br />your complicated state of mind <br />(The meaning doesn't matter if it's only idle chatter of a <br />transcendental kind). <br />And every one will say, <br />As you walk your mystic way, <br />"If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for ME, <br />Why, what a very singularly deep young man this deep young man must <br />be!" <br /> <br />Be eloquent in praise of the very dull old days which have long <br />since passed away, <br />And convince 'em, if you can, that the reign of good QUEEN ANNE was <br />Culture's palmiest day. <br />Of course you will pooh-pooh whatever's fresh and new, and declare <br />it's crude and mean, <br />And that Art stopped short in the cultivated court of the EMPRESS <br />JOSEPHINE. <br />And every one will say, <br />As you walk your mystic way, <br />"If that's not good enough for him which is good enough for ME, <br />Why, what a very cultivated kind of youth this kind of youth must <br />be!" <br /> <br />Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your <br />languid spleen, <br />An attachment E LA Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too- <br />French French bean. <br />Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in <br />the high aesthetic band, <br />If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your <br />mediaeval hand. <br />And every one will say, <br />As you walk your flowery way, <br />"If he's content with a vegetable love which would certainly not <br />suit ME, <br />Why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man <br />must be!"<br /><br />William Schwenck Gilbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-aesthete/
