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TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON HEARING HIM MISPRAISED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Because thou hast believ'd, the wheels of life
Last Line: Which saw one clue to life, and followed it.
Subject(s): Wellesley, Arthur (1769-1852); Wellington, Duke Of


Because thou hast believed, the wheels of life
Stand never idle, but go always round:
Not by their hands, who vex the patient ground,
Moved only; but genius, in the strife
Of all its chafing torrents after thaw,
Urged; and to feed whose movement, spinning sand,
The feeble sons of pleasure set their hand:
And, in this vision of the general law,
Hast labored with the foremost, hast become
Laborious, persevering, serious, firm;
For this, thy track, across the fretful foam
Of vehement actions without scope or term,
Called history, keeps a splendor: due to wit,
Which saw one clue to life, and followed it.




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