I HAD ambition once. Like Solomon I asked for wisdom, deeming wisdom fair, And with much pains a little knowledge won Of Nature's cruelty and Man's despair, And mostly learned how vain such learnings were. Then in my grief I turned to happiness, And woman's love awhile was all my care, And I achieved some sorrow and some bliss, Till love rebelled. Then the mad lust of power Became my dream, to rule my fellow-men; And I too lorded it my little hour, And wrought for weal or woe with sword and pen, And wounded many, some, alas, my friends. Now I ask silence. My ambition ends. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TRANSIENCE OF HANDS by KAREN SWENSON ANGLOSAXON STREET by EARL (EARLE) BIRNEY LOVERS' INFINITENESS by JOHN DONNE FARRAGUT by WILLIAM TUCKEY MEREDITH THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 23 by OMAR KHAYYAM TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE REV. GILBERT WAKEFIELD by LUCY AIKEN IN THE BELFRY OF THE NIEUWE KERK by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FOR NOEL (WHERE A GATE SWINGS EITHER WAY) by BEULAH ALLYNE BELL |