Leisurely Doing These

Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like stars at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Leisure by William Henry Davies is an incredible poem about taking the time to look around and notice the beauty that every day holds. It is briefly about man nowadays who do not have the time to enjoy their life entirely. Whatever happens in the world, they are oblivious as they are somewhat overwhelmed by their works and responsibilities. Leisure teaches us that we need to slow our lives down and take a look around and notice the little things. It shows that we should take advantage of the little time that we have on this earth and pay attention to the little things.

First, it is asking what is good life if we don’t take the time to stand and look at what’s going on around us. We do not even take the time to look at the little things. We never wake up and gaze at the beauty of the first rays of the sun shining down. When the sun goes down and night takes over we don’t look up and admire the moon or the twinkling stars. We just go on with our fast paced lives as though it is nothing special, when in reality it is a magnificent creation like a work of art hanging in a museum. The poet compares human with "sheep and cows", which can stand and stare as long as they wish. 

This is saying, again, how we do not ever seem to take the time to see the world around us. We have to look around when travelling down the road and what we passing about. We should take the time to recognize the world around us and see what’s going on. The poet claims that when we pass the wooded area, we will not notice where the squirrels hide the nuts in the grass.  

We can’t even take the time to enjoy the smile of another person because we are too caught up in where we have to be next and what we are doing ten minutes from now. Time is when we just empty our minds for sometimes and let the beauty of little pleasures of life fill it. There is no time to stop and stare as a beautiful woman dances, and no time to wait to see her smile, first with her eyes, then with her mouth.


The final couplet makes something of a moral judgement that it is pretty pitiful as we cannot stand stare at natural and beautiful things, just because they are bogged down with responsibilities and worries. 


Although the poet includes himself as one of the members of the crowd who do not have the time to observe nature and beauty closely, at the same time, he demonstrates that in fact he has taken the time to do it. He has obviously overcome these as when he states what he notices things around him, and now he tries to persuade people to "stand and stare".