Classic Poem

SCHERZO

Costly was the House of Pleasure,
Though it vanished swift away.
What was left of all the treasure
That within its chambers lay?
And the labor who may measure,
Though 'twas done by gnome and fay?

Years of practice make musicians,
Though their music last an hour;
And the mightiest magicians,
Who can form from clay a flower,
Take from life the stern conditions
That transmute their secret power.

We who call ourselves enlightened
And enjoy the fruits of Time
Prize too humbly what has brightened
Life amid this century's prime,
Else its value would be hightened
To an estimate sublime.

Not so long ago our Science
Held that sun and stars revolved
Round the earth, whose vast defiance
Kept attraction's forces solved,
Though for basis her reliance
A huge tortoise' back involved.

Not so long ago the leeches
Bled for every human ill;
Men who uttered liberal speeches
On the fire were forced to grill;
For a fierce law's slightest breaches
Scaffolds frowned on every hill.

Now the very boor is polished
And we sit with Turk and Hun;
Yet is caste not quite demolished,
Nor Millennium begun;
Serfdom is not all abolished,
Freedom is not wholly won.

Grand the House of Knowledge rises,
Yet it has unfinished halls,
Still has medieval guises
Where the light of learning palls;
Yet it offers boundless prizes
In its decorated halls.