A little learning is a dangerous thing
; |
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian
spring : |
There shallow draughts intoxicate the
brain, |
And drinking largely sobers us again. |
Fired at first sight with what the Muse
imparts, |
In fearless youth we tempt the heights
of Arts ; |
While from the bounded level of our
mind |
Short views we take, nor see the
lengths behind, |
But, more advanced, behold with strange
surprise |
New distant scenes of endless science
rise ! |
So pleased at first the towering Alps
we try, |
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread
the sky ; |
The eternal snows appear already past, |
And the first clouds and mountains seem
the last ; |
But those attained, we tremble to
survey |
The growing labours of the lengthened
way ; |
The increasing prospect tires our
wandering eyes, |
Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps
arise !
|
Alexander Pope
| Classic Poems |
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[ A Little Learning ] [ Know Thyself ] [ Elegy To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady ] [ The Rape of the Lock Canto 1 ] [ The Dunciad Book the First ] [ Ode on Solitude ] |
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