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...EIGHTEEN-DOLLAR TAXI TRIP TO TIZAPAN AND BACK TO CHAPALA by CLARENCE MAJOR CAVALIER TUNES: BOOT AND SADDLE by ROBERT BROWNING TO PFRIMMER (LINES ON READING 'DRIFTWOOD') by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS by GREGORY I THE SNOWING OF THE PINES' by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON SONNET: 30 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |