My life more civil is and free Than any civil polity. Ye princes keep your realms And circumscribed power, Not wide as are my dreams, Nor rich as is this hour. What can ye give which I have not? What can ye take which I have got? Can ye defend the dangerless? Can ye inherit nakedness? To all true wants times ear is deaf, Penurious states lend no relief Out of their pelf -- But a free soul -- thank God -- Can help itself. Be sure your fate Doth keep apart its state -- Not linked with any band -- Even the nobles of the land In tented fields with cloth of gold -- No place doth hold But is more chivalrous than they are. And sigheth for a nobler war. A finer strain its trumpet sings -- A brighter gleam its armor flings. The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me -- No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MUSIC by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET FINIS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON AN ALPINE PICTURE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH STANZAS FOR MUSIC (1) by GEORGE GORDON BYRON AMORETTI: 68 by EDMUND SPENSER TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY by WILLIAM BLAKE TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. TO ONE WHO IS WHERE THE ETERNAL ARE by EDWARD CARPENTER |