Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TEACHING OF THE BLOWS OF FORTUNE, by GEORGE MEREDITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TEACHING OF THE BLOWS OF FORTUNE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye that nourish hopes of fame!
Last Line: Which tames the noblest efforts of poor flesh.
Subject(s): Fame; Fortune; History; Reputation; Historians


YE that nourish hopes of fame!
Ye who would be known in song!
Ponder old history, and duly frame
Your souls to meek acceptance of the thong.

Lo! of hundreds who aspire,
Eighties perish -- nineties tire!
They who bear up, in spite of wrecks and wracks,
Were season'd by celestial hail of thwacks.

Fortune in this mortal race
Builds on thwackings for its base;
Thus the All-Wise doth make a flail a staff,
And separates his heavenly corn from chaff.

Think ye, had he never known
Noorna a belabouring crone,
Shibli Bagarag would have shaved Shagpat?
The unthwack'd lives in chronicle a rat!

'Tis the thwacking in this den
Maketh lions of true men!
So are we nerved to break the clinging mesh
Which tames the noblest efforts of poor flesh.





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