Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PRIDE OF RANK, by JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PRIDE OF RANK, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Descent / you'll grant, is not alone nobility
Last Line: I trust I seem not bold, to argue so.
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity


DESCENT,
You'll grant, is not alone nobility,
Will you not? Never yet was line so long,
But it beginning had: and that was found
In rarity of nature, giving one
Advantage over many; aptitude
For arms, for counsel, so superlative
As baffled all competitors, and made
The many glad to follow him as guide
Or safeguard; and with title to endow him,
For his high honour, or to gain some end
Supposed propitious to the general weal,
On those who should descend from him entail'd.
Not in descent alone, then, lies degree,
Which from descent to nature may be traced,
Its proper fount! And that, which nature did,
You'll grant she may be like to do again;
And in a very peasant, yea, a slave,
Enlodge the worth that roots the noble tree.
I trust I seem not bold, to argue so.





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