by John Rea-Hedrick
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I set upon a journey – Truth to seek!
With brash and bold bravado I did go
Straight to the lair of learned Sage to speak
Of my intention: she to me bestow!
With much pretension, casting off to me
Her words, like pearls, anticipated; thus
She spoke, “If A is B and B is C
Then A is C,” then left, cer’monious.
I turned upon the thought and wandered home,
Uncertain which direction I had come,
And picked my way through darkness on my own,
To make for me a new path, foll’wing none.
Of wisdom without knowledge who can say?
Of knowledge without wisdom – Folly’s way!

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Note:
This poem was inspired by reading Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias.  I wanted to explore, in the form of a sonnet, the futility of foregoing wisdom in the quest for knowledge for knowledge sake.

Let me know what you think!