Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BRASHEANNA; SONNETS ON PETER BRASH, A PUBLICAN: 5, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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BRASHEANNA; SONNETS ON PETER BRASH, A PUBLICAN: 5, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: To goodness or greatness: to be good and die
Last Line: Dejects the traveller and collects the crows.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons


To Goodness or Greatness: to be good and die,
Or to be great and live forever great:
To be the unknown Smith that saves the state
And blooms unhonoured by the public eye:
To be the unknown Robinson or Brown
Whose piping virtues perish in the mud
Or triumphing in blasphemy and blood,
The imperial pirate, pickled in renown:
Unfaltering BRASH the latter number chose
Of this eterne antithesis: and still
The flower of his immortal memory blows
Where'er the spirits of the loathed repose
Where'er the trophy of the gibbet hill
Dejects the traveller and collects the crows.





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