Leisure is a poem written by William Henry Davies who is a Welsh poet and writer. According to the author of the poem, life is meaningless if we have no time to enjoy the beauty of the world. It is a straightforward yet thought-provoking poem. In the opening, the poet questioned the meaning of a hectic life: “ What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare”. In the end, he answered his question by himself by saying that it would not be worth living if we do not have enough time to slow down the speed of our running life: “A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare”.
Stand and stare what? What things should we give enough time to stand and stare? Davies begins his examples in the poem with animals before turning to nature and finally human. These lines portray the things we miss by living through busyness and deepen the argument of the poet.
This poem reflects the situation of the modern world. The world is developing faster and faster. We can get whatever we wish; luxuries, advanced technologies and so on. Many modern conveniences such as dishwashers have significantly shaved off hours of weekly household chores. Still, we are running out of time. Leisure time is relatively scarce for most people because we are trying to catch up with the momentum of life by using our free time to balance the demand of work. We miss so many important things in our life without noticing that we miss them. We concentrate on the problems and we fail to see the big picture.
To conclude, this poem highlights the importance of leisure in one life.