The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott Edited by his Son Edwin Elliott ... A New and Revised Edition: Two Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott |  |
SONNET ON A PAIR OF SPECTACLES.
How many men, who liv'd to bless mankind,Have died unthank'd! Far-teaching and self-taught,
They did what learning scorns to learn or teach;
Their deeds are portion of the general thought;
Their thoughts have pass'd into the common speech,
And labour's wages; yet they left behind
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Out of the sacrifice that gives and saves.
Lo, what a tree is rising from their graves,
To shelter, ev'n on earth, the wise and true!
Then, worship not famed words, which, like the winds,
Or Homer's song, seem things that cannot die,
And ever lived: they are but names of minds
Whose good or evil speaks immortally.
| The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott | |