Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 9-10
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.
- The speaker's kids are boys, that much we know for sure in line 9. He uses the apostrophe "And boys," which is just a fancy way of addressing someone who isn't actually present.
- The "clever servant" part might bring to mind the idea that all of the folks rushing around, thereby participating in the decay, are nothing more than servants to the monster empire. They might be "clever" in the sense of coming up with a nifty idea now and then (think Facebook, iPhones, etc.) but they're still servants to the monster nonetheless.
- The speaker warns his boys that they ought not to get hung up on the common idea of loving mankind because men are often nothing more than tyrants ("insufferable master"), impossible to satisfy or enlighten. In other words, people are just really the worst.
- Then, by line 10, he tells us that someone tried that once, the whole love of mankind thing, and that someone just so happens to be God. And since God (or more specifically Jesus in the Christian tradition) suffered and died for mankind when he walked the earth, the speaker warns his boys not to follow in those footsteps. It's all a trap, according to the speaker, meant to catch those with noble intentions like enlightening spirits and such.
- If you're feeling a bit down and out after all this, fear not, because the speaker also wants us to remember that America's republic still has the potential to shine on. Will it definitely shine after all of this corruption? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe up to you to decide.
- The point seems to be that the cultural decay that occurs due to man's constant quest for power and influence, is all totally normal. Hop in a time machine and you're bound to find ancient cultures that did the same sort of thing. Just like nature that has her cycles of growth and decay, so do humans (who are of course also part of nature, no matter how hot to trot they may be).