Classic Poem

I HOLD that the true age of wisdom is when
We are boys and girls, and not women and men, —
When as credulous children we know things because
We believe them — however averse to the laws.
It is faith , then, not science and reason, I say,
That is genuine wisdom. — And would that to-day
We, as then, were as wise and ineffably blest
As to live, love and die, and trust God for the rest!

So I simply deny the old notion, you know,
That the wiser we get as the older we grow! —
For in youth all we know we are certain of. — Now
The greater our knowledge, the more we allow
For skeptical margin. — And hence I regret
That the world isn't flat, and the sun doesn't set,
And we may not go creeping up home, when we die,
Through the moon, like a round yellow hole in the sky.