1. FORTUNE and Glory may be lost and won, But when the work of Nature is undone That loss flies past returning; No help is left but mourning. What can to kind youth more despiteful prove Than to be robbed of one sole brother? Father and Mother Ask reverence, a brother only love. Like age and birth like thoughts and pleasures move: What gain can he heap up, though showers of crowns descend, Who for that good must change a brother and a friend? 2. Follow, O follow yet thy brother's fame, But not his fate: let's only change the name, And find his worth presented In thee, by him prevented. O'er past example of the dead be great, Out of thyself begin thy story: Virtue and glory Are eminent being placed in princely seat. Oh, heaven, his age prolong with sacred heat, And on his honoured head let all the blessings light Which to his brother's life men wished, and wished them right. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TALL NETTLES by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS THE NO-LONGER-MERRY ANCIENT MONARCH by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PENNYROYAL by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH JACOB TODD by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE SUPPER by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE |