Friedrich Schiller (10 November 1759 – 9 May 1805 / Marbach, Württemberg)
Archimedes
To Archimedes once a scholar came,
"Teach me," he said, "the art that won thy fame;--
The godlike art which gives such boons to toil,
And showers such fruit upon thy native soil;--
The godlike art that girt the town when all
Rome's vengeance burst in thunder on the wall!"
"Thou call'st art godlike--it is so, in truth,
And was," replied the master to the youth,
"Ere yet its secrets were applied to use--
Ere yet it served beleaguered Syracuse:--
Ask'st thou from art, but what the art is worth?
The fruit?--for fruit go cultivate the earth.--
He who the goddess would aspire unto,
Must not the goddess as the woman woo!"
Read poems about / on: woman, truth, women
PoemHunter.com Updates
-
Autistic Pride Day
June 18
-
Happy Birthday Geoffrey Hill!
English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion
-
Happy Birthday George Essex Evans!
(1863-1909) Australian poet
-
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
Theme 2013: Drought and water scarcity
Top 500 Poems
-
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
-
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
-
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
-
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
-
Dreams
Langston Hughes
-
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
-
If
Rudyard Kipling
-
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
-
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
-
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou

Comments about this poem (Archimedes by Friedrich Schiller )