“How Nature’s Beauties Should Be Viewed”

Should man, with microscopic eye,

View the details of Nature’s plan,

Into each nook and corner pry,

And needlessly the hidden scan?

5Should he inspect each bud and flow’r,

With close, unmeant, uncall’d-for look,

And, by his analytic pow’r,

Dissolve each charm of vale or brook?

How do the words “microscopic eye,” “pry,” “inspect,” and “dissolve” in stanzas 1-2 affect the tone of the poem?

Should he resolve the rainbow’s hues,

10 Into their prime and simple forms,

And thus the charm dispel, unloose,

Which gladdens us, amid the storms?

What can be inferred from lines 9-12?

Should he, with keen, inquiring look,

Insist on knowing, seeing all,

15 Which nature made a sealed book

On this, our strange, terrestrial ball?

How does the metaphor developed in lines 13-16 help the reader understand the speaker’s perception of nature?

And so, I apprehend, that we

30 Should oft restrain our thoughts and sigh,

Nor delve too far, not try to see,

With deeper, but more painful light.

What does the phrase “painful light” mean in line 32?