Poems By William Bell Scott. Ballads, Studies from Nature, Sonnets, etc. Illustrated by Seventeen Etchings by the Author and L. Alma Tadema |
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ASSISTANCE DELAYED.
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206
ASSISTANCE DELAYED.
Had that hand hailed me and that cheerful song,Had that good chance befallen me, while the blood
Was juvenescent, and the vista long,
And life's mid-year unbridged: while yet all-good
Appeared the triumphs to be won, the men
Who had attained, all gods, amidst the mist
Blood-red o'er youth's long sunrise. Doubtless then
Proudly had I leapt forth and dared the best,
Either with tricks fantastic, or high faith
And art,—the best that in this right arm lay!
But now the game seems boy's play: keep your breath
To cool your pottage, wise old proverbs say.
The world still grudgingly unties her store:
Fame and reward are ours when they are prized no more.
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