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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UNWORTHY AMBITION.
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 | Poems |  |
207
UNWORTHY AMBITION.
To rise up step by step from hall to daïs;
To take the best seat at the best repast,
While adulating eyes are toward him cast
By the upstanding hungry; to have praise
From those he scorns: to see the base hand raise
The limp hat to him as he hastens by,
Not deigning to return the courtesy;
To ride while others tramp the miry ways.
To take the best seat at the best repast,
While adulating eyes are toward him cast
By the upstanding hungry; to have praise
From those he scorns: to see the base hand raise
The limp hat to him as he hastens by,
Not deigning to return the courtesy;
To ride while others tramp the miry ways.
These are the honours of a hot-breathed world,
These the civilian honours, these the prize
In church or bar. Behold that wig deep-curled,
The symbol of a long life's toil, those eyes
Below it like a tipstaff's!—shut thine own,
And think of Christ or of the sky star-sown!
These the civilian honours, these the prize
In church or bar. Behold that wig deep-curled,
The symbol of a long life's toil, those eyes
Below it like a tipstaff's!—shut thine own,
And think of Christ or of the sky star-sown!
| Poems | |