A GARLAND OF PRECEPTS
A GARLAND OF PRECEPTS
by Phyllis McGinley
Though a seeker since my birth,
Here is all I’ve learned on earth,
This is the gist of what I know:
Give advice and buy a foe.
Random truths are all I find
Stuck like burs about my mind.
Salve a blister. Burn a letter.
Do not wash a cashmere sweater.
Tell a tale but seldom twice.
Give a stone before advice.
Pressed for rules and verities,
All I recollect are these:
Feed a cold to starve a fever.
Argue with no true believer.
Think-too-long is never-act.
Scratch a myth to find a fact.
Stich in time saves twenty stitches.
Give the rich, to please them, riches.
Give to love your hearth and hall.
But do not give advice at all.
November 21st, 2005 at 4:35 pm
Thank you for posting this poem. I first read it in Readers Digest 40+ years ago when I was a kid. I remembered a fragment after all these years and have often wished I knew the rest of it. Now I have it. Thank you.
Terry
July 14th, 2008 at 3:24 am
I HAVE READ THIS POEM IN THE YEAR 1965 ,WHEN I WAS READING IN LOYOLA SCHOOL, JAMSHEDPUR,INDIA. I HAD PRESERVED THE BOOK FOR YEARS. BUT SOMEHOW IT GOT MISPLACED. I COULD GIVE THE GIST TO MY KIDS WHO ARE IN COLLEGE NOW. BUT TILL DATE I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING.
THANK YOU