"Oh, such a life as he resolved to live, when he had learned it"

Yea, but we found him bald too, eyes like lead,

          Accents uncertain:

"Time to taste life," another would have said,

          "Up with the curtain!"

This man said rather, "Actual life comes next?

          Patience a moment!

Grant I have mastered learning's crabbed text,

          Still there's the comment.

Let me know all! Prate not of most or least,

          Painful or easy!

Even to the crumbs I'd fain eat up the feast,

          Ay, nor feel queasy."

Oh, such a life as he resolved to live,

          When he had learned it,

When he had gathered all books had to give!

          Sooner, he spurned it.

Image the whole, then execute the parts

          Fancy the fabric

Quite, ere you build, ere steel strike fire from quartz,

          Ere mortar dab brick! 

—A Grammarian's Funeral, Robert Browning