An Exhortation.

Chameleons feed on light and air:     Poets' food is love and fame:     If in this wide world of care     Poets could but find the same     With as little toil as they,     Would they ever change their hue     As the light chameleons do,     Suiting it to every ray     Twenty times a day?     Poets are on this cold earth,     As chameleons might be,     Hidden from their early birth     in a cave beneath the sea;     Where light is, chameleons change:     Where love is not, poets do:     Fame is love disguised: if few     Find either, never think it strange     That poets range.     Yet dare not stain with wealth or power     A poet's free and heavenly mind:     If bright chameleons should devour     Any food but beams and wind,     They would grow as earthly soon     As their brother lizards are.     Children of a sunnier star,     Spirits from beyond the moon,     Oh, refuse the boon!