I mark thy clenched jaw, and murmured vow: "Never -- so help me Heaven! -- will I be blest; Never -- so aid my will! -- take any rest, Nor common joy of lazier souls allow My meritless endeavour. Rather, how Most surely guard from recompense my quest After the purely-high, mysterious Best; And win it gladliest blood-sweat on my brow." "O valiant to presumption!" -- Nature cries, -- "This thraldom of self-will, I charge thee, break; My children need thy bliss; and wilt thou take At their discomfiture thy single prize? Turn thee and dare be happy for their sake, And smile up gratefully with childlike eyes." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE LADIES by MARY LEE CHUDLEIGH MUSKETAQUID by RALPH WALDO EMERSON HER DILEMMA; IN CHURCH by THOMAS HARDY THE BIGLOW PAPERS: 3. WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL LILIES: 21. ART NEEDS THEE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) SHRODON FEAR: THE VU'ST PEART by WILLIAM BARNES DREAM ENCONTERS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |