Is it a virtue, as the sages say, The "trivial round and common task" to ply, And for no wider walk of life to sigh Than we were born to; sweetly, day by day, Our meed of lowly reverence to pay Our high-placed "betters"; never to defy The powers that be; never to kick or cry, Or think, or question -- simply to obey? Then vice be with us, although blood be shed. No pact with powers partizan and blind; No peace with Custom that makes right of wrong. We shall content us when the starved are fed When men and brothers are agreed and kind, And there is fair play between weak and strong. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SOLDIER by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS KATIE LEE AND WILLIE GREY by JOSIE R. HUNT TO - (1) by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY SONNET UPON HISTORIE OF GEORGE CASTRIOT, ALIAS SCANDERBERG by EDMUND SPENSER THE LADY'S DRESSING ROOM by JONATHAN SWIFT THE CITY CHILD by ALFRED TENNYSON |