China and Japan

James Montgomery

Jealous China, dire Japan,
With bewildered eyes I scan,
They are but dead seas of man,

Ages in succession find
Forms that change not, stagnant mind,
And they leave the same behind.

This is just a short extract from the long travelling poem A Voyage Round the World.

If you find the views expressed in the poem unpleasant, please remember it is not the policy of Poetry Atlas to censor or rewrite the past. Nor is the poetry represented here selected solely on quality, we are committed to including all verse about places, the good, and the bad.

The views of the poet may be hardly acceptable to the modern reader, but they were written almost two hundred years ago...


Main Location:

Japan


Other locations: