On Learning

I may not care if you should wish to learn,
But please remain in ignorance in silence --
Do not infest the world, don't make it burn,
Don't interfere with your slack-jaw-faced violence.

I don't expect that you'd respect my plea
As you don't show respect and you don't act
Respectfully, though you demand it, free
Of evidence of true desert or tact.

If humans are suspended in between
The angels and the animals, you show
You chose the animals, the low, obscene --
You interfere with all who want to grow.

If virtue needs true knowledge, there's no lack
Of vice in you -- you try to hold us back.