30.04.2007, 11:17
A PREACHER.
THUS spake the Preacher: "O, my friends, beware!
How ever smooth and tempting seems the path,
With bowers of cooling shade, the end is wrath:
Here 't is unsafe, that's dangerous footing there;
But follow me and have no further care;
Make me your guide, for I am one that hath
Lived long and gathered in life's aftermath—
Experience. I bid you not despair.
Reach me your hands and cast away all doubt;
I'll lead you safe along the glacier's shelf:
You say 't is dark? 'T is noon-day, I insist;
Besides, I know each pitfall hereabout,
I know each chasm"—just then the Preacher's self
Stumbled and plunged into eternal mist.
THUS spake the Preacher: "O, my friends, beware!
How ever smooth and tempting seems the path,
With bowers of cooling shade, the end is wrath:
Here 't is unsafe, that's dangerous footing there;
But follow me and have no further care;
Make me your guide, for I am one that hath
Lived long and gathered in life's aftermath—
Experience. I bid you not despair.
Reach me your hands and cast away all doubt;
I'll lead you safe along the glacier's shelf:
You say 't is dark? 'T is noon-day, I insist;
Besides, I know each pitfall hereabout,
I know each chasm"—just then the Preacher's self
Stumbled and plunged into eternal mist.