The greatest monarch may be stabbed by night, And fortune help the murderer in his flight; The vilest ruffian may commit a rape, Yet safe from injured innocence escape: And calumny, by working underground, Can, unrevenged, the greatest merit wound. What's to be done? shall wit and learning choose, To live obscure, and have no fame to lose? By censure frighted out of honour's road, Nor dare to use the gifts by heaven bestowed; Or fearless enter in through virtue's gate, And buy distinction at the dearest rate? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROBIN REDBREAST by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE WHITE ROAD UP ATHIRT THE HILL by WILLIAM BARNES WOUNDED by JESSAMINE SLAUGHTER BURGUM TO EACH HIS DREAM by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON INOCULATION FOR THE SMALL POX by JOHN BYROM DON JUAN: CANTO 4 by GEORGE GORDON BYRON LOVE'S EVENING by ANNA C. CARRAHER |