Poem by William Watson

Art Maxims

Often ornateness
Goes with greatness;
Oftener felicity
Comes of simplicity.

Talent that's cheapest
Affects singularity.
Thoughts that dive deepest
Rise radiant in clarity.

Life is rough:
Sing smoothly, O Bard.
Enough, enough,
To have found life hard.

No record Art keeps
Of her travail and throes.
There is toil on the steeps,—
On the summits, repose.

1. Well He Slumbers, Greatly Slain
2. And These - Are These Indeed the End
3. Liberty Rejected
4. World-Strangeness
5. History

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