University of Virginia Library

SONNETS.—INVOLUNTARY STRUGGLE.

[I. Not in the rashness of warm confidence]

Not in the rashness of warm confidence,
Too vainly, self-assured that I was strong,
To struggle for and reach that eminence,
Around whose rugged steeps such terrors throng;
Did I resolve upon the perilous toil
Which calls for man's best strength and hardihood,
Ere he may win the height and take the spoil;—
But that a spirit stronger than my mood,
Stood ever by and drave me to the task!—
Oh! not in vain presumption did I choose
The barren honors of the unfruitful Nine,
Sure that no favor from them did I ask;
Small resolution did it need of mine,
To bind me to the service of the Muse!

[II. Even as the boy whom the stern prophet sire]

Even as the boy whom the stern prophet sire
Devotes, in some deep forest, with a vow—
So, with no thought of mine, and no desire,
Was I constrain'd to seek and sworn to bow
At altars, whose strange gods did never tire
Of service, but commanded night and day!
I knew no sports of comrades,—when in play
My young companions shouted, I was sad;
Fill'd with strange yearnings,—summon'd still away
To that lone worship—watchful, yet not glad!
Shall it be deem'd a voluntary mood
That leads the boy from boyhood,—sports he loves,—
The merry games of comrades,—still to brood,
While others laugh, in melancholy groves?