IF Virtue be measured by what we resist, When against Inclination we strive, You and I have been proved, we may fairly insist, The most virtuous mortals alive! Now Virtue, we know, is the brightest of pearls, But as Pleasure is hard of evasion, Should we envy, or pity, the stoical churls Who never have known a temptation? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BABY'S SHOES by WILLIAM COX BENNETT A POISON TREE, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE WHY THUS LONGING by HARRIET WINSLOW SEWALL MY BEAUTIFUL LADY by THOMAS WOOLNER PETITION OF A SCHOOLBOY TO HIS FATHER by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE IMPROVISATORE: LEOPOLD by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |