FORTUNE! why thus, where'er my footsteps tread, Obstruct each path with rocks and thorns like these? Think'st thou that I thy threatening mien shall dread, Or toil and pant thy waving locks to seize? Reserve the frown severe, the menace rude, For vassal-spirits that confess thy sway! My constant soul should triumph unsubdued, Were the wide universe destruction's prey. Am I to conflicts new, in toils untried? No! I have long thine utmost power defied, And drawn fresh energies from every fight. Thus from rude strokes of hammers and the wheel, With each successive shock the tempered steel More keenly piercing proves, more dazzling bright | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DAISY; WRITTEN AT EDINBURGH by ALFRED TENNYSON IMITATIONS OF SHAKESPEARE: PROGNE'S DREAM by JOHN ARMSTRONG FALL IN! by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR THE NARROW WAY by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR THE POET AND THE FLY: 1 by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 10 by THOMAS CAMPION |