YOU ask for fame or power? Then up, and take for text: -- This is my hour, And not the next, nor next! Oh, wander not in ways Of ease or indolence! Swift come the days, And swift the days go hence. Strike! while the hand is strong: Strike! while you can and may: Strength goes ere long, -- Even yours will pass away. Sweet seem the fields, and green, In which you fain would lie; Sweet seems the scene That glads the idle eye; Soft seems the path you tread, And balmy soft the air, -- Heaven overhead And all the earth seems fair; But, would your heart aspire To noble things, -- to claim Bard's, statesman's fire -- Some measure of their fame; Or, would you seek and find The secret of success With mortal kind? Then, up from idleness! Up -- up! all fame, all power Lies in this golden text: @3This is my hour -- And not the next nor next!@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BLIZZARD by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SOULS LAKE by ROBERT STUART FITZGERALD A WINTER WISH by ROBERT HINCKLEY MESSINGER FINDING CYNTHIA IN PAIN, AND CRYING; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES PSALM 2; DONE AUGUST 8, 1653 - TERZETTI by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |