Go now, ingenuous Youth! -- The trying hour Is come: The World demands that thou shouldst go To active life: There titles, wealth and power May all be purchas'd -- Yet I joy to know Thou wilt not pay their price. The base controul Of petty despots in their pedant reign Already hast thou felt; -- and high disdain Of Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul[.] -- Not, where mistaken Glory, in the field Rears her red banner, be thou ever found; But, against proud Oppression raise the shield Of Patriot daring -- So shalt thou renown'd For the best virtues live; or that denied May'st die, as Hampden or as Sydney died! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PESSIMIST by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN KING IN FLANDERS FIELDS by JOHN MCCRAE TO THE NEW YEAR, 1823 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE MAID VAR MY BRIDE by WILLIAM BARNES FANCY AND IMAGINATION by BERNARD BARTON |