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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BRASHEANNA; SONNETS ON PETER BRASH, A PUBLICAN: 5 by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: TO GOODNESS OR GREATNESS: TO BE GOOD AND DIE
Last Line: DEJECTS THE TRAVELLER AND COLLECTS THE CROWS.
Subject(s): BARS & BARTENDERS; PUBS; TAVERNS; SALOONS;
To Goodness or Greatness: to be good and die,
Or to be great and live forever great:
To be the unknown Smith that saves the state
And blooms unhonoured by the public eye:
To be the unknown Robinson or Brown
Whose piping virtues perish in the mud
Or triumphing in blasphemy and blood,
The imperial pirate, pickled in renown:
Unfaltering BRASH the latter number chose
Of this eterne antithesis: and still
The flower of his immortal memory blows
Where'er the spirits of the loathed repose
Where'er the trophy of the gibbet hill
Dejects the traveller and collects the crows.



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