Be not aggrieved that you are not compared
To vases, flowers, kittens, frail and slight.
Not every fellow wants the like of these;
Not every man who wants them, treats them right.

A vase's beauty is a fragile thing:
She shatters if she tumbles from her shelf.
Besides, there's nothing much a vase can do
But stand around admiring herself.

Behold the proud cathedral, tall and strong!
Within her walls are works of art as fair
As any vase. How wondrous are the sounds
With which her mighty organ fills the air!

A flower's beauty lasts too short a time.
Her purpose served, she fades, she wilts, she dies.
A tree is tall, long-lived and lovely too.
She purifies the air she beautifies!

A kitten rubs herself against my leg
And says with an ingratiating purr
That, since I keep her as a pampered pet,
I've earned the right to touch her pretty fur.

A tigress is not kept! She's free! She's strong!
Behold her grace as she pursues her prey!
And, like a tigress, you've no need for me.
What rapture, then, should you decide to stay!

Yet all these metaphors, alas! fall short:
What thing, what plant, what animal can do
What you can with your independent mind?
I flatter them, comparing them to you!