For what the world admires I'll wish no more, Nor court that airy nothing of a Name; Such fleeting shadows let the proud adore, Let them be suppliants for an empty frame. If Reason rules within and keeps the throne, While the inferior faculties obey, And all her laws without reluctance own, Accounting none more fit, more just than they; If Virtue my free soul unsullied keeps, Exempting it from passion and from stain; If no black guilty thoughts disturb my sleeps, And no past crimes my vext remembrance pain: -- If though I pleasure find in living here, I yet can look on death without surprise; If I've a soul above the reach of fear, And which will nothing mean or sordid prise: A soul which cannot be depress'd by grief, Nor too much rais'd by the sublimest joy; Which can, when troubled, give itself relief, And to advantage all its thoughts employ, -- Then am I happy in my humble state, Although not crown'd with glory nor with bays; A mind that triumphs over vice and fate Esteems it mean to court the world for praise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOMING BRAVES by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WELCOME by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS by RUDYARD KIPLING THE WEATHER-COCK POINTS SOUTH by AMY LOWELL BORDER BALLAD [OR MARCH, OR SONG], FR. THE MONASTERY by WALTER SCOTT |