HARD task! exclaim the undisciplined, to lean On Patience coupled with such slow endeavour, That long-lived servitude must last for ever. Perish the grovelling few, who, prest between Wrongs and the terror of redress, would wean Millions from glorious aims. Our chains to sever Let us break forth in tempest now or never! -- What, is there then no space for golden mean And gradual progress? -- Twilight leads to day, And, even within the burning zones of earth, The hastiest sunrise yields a temperate ray; The softest breeze to fairest flowers gives birth: Think not that Prudence dwells in dark abodes, She scans the future with the eye of gods. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: 48 by GEORGE SANTAYANA THE LAWYER'S INVOCATION TO SPRING by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL COMMEMORATION ODE READ AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL ON THE GRASSHOPPER by ANACREON LILIES: 9. BENEATH LOFTIER STARS by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) GIVE HIM HIS DUE by LEVI BISHOP |