Poetry of Kansas
 

ADVICE


I.
 
Poor little poet,
      The world will laugh,
If ever it sees
      Your pile of chaff;
 
For chaff it will call
      Your grains of wheat,
Perhaps it will add,
      With smut and cheat;
 
But remember, 'tis said
      That the ox's eye
Catches the' dust
      And chaff that fly,
 
While the mouse builds of them
      A cosy nest,
And hunts the wheat grains
      From among the rest.
 
Then let the world laugh,
      My poor little poet,
And say this is chaff,
      You may answer "I know it."
 
II
 
Poor little poet,
      You've twined the roses,
And talked of love,
      Till it no more imposes;
 
Perhaps it were better
      To seek the air,
And learn something more
      Of what things are there;
 
And make your heart wider
      An inch or two,
By loving in deed,
      As you say you do.
 
For love and experience
      Bound together,
Are the best means of length'ning
      The poet's tether.
___James A. Wickersham
 
Sunflowers
Selected by Arthur Richmond Marsh
(Lawrence: Journal Publishing Co. 1888)
Pages 108-109
 
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