Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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AMBITION. |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
AMBITION.
Ambition, like the kite, will soar full-high,Yet are his heart and ken still downward bent,
His base prey's still beneath him, most intent
On that when highest soaring; Folly, by
A little gilded Dust thrown in his Eye,
Makes a mere Crown seem a bright Halo sent
By Glory's self to wreath his brows; the tent,
Where like a God he sits, th' Idolatry
Of foolëd hosts, blind tools and framed aright
For such a hand, the shout, the feast, the fight,
The bloodstained triomph, such the Steps that bear
Ambition to his selfo' erbalanced height,
Whence, on his Earth-Olympus, he will scare
With his Claythunderbolts, to vulgar sight
A God— and most fit too, for such as make
Their Deity of Clay, and consecrate
In him their selfscourged Sins: but drowsy Hate,
Drugged by Oppression, shall at length awake,
And the vain Momentsidol rudely break,
Hurled to the Dust from whence capricious Fate
Had raised him! of the Virtue of a State
Its Rulers give the Measure— for they take
Their Measure from it: this is the sole true
Thermometer, which sinks and rises too
As Good or Evil may preponderate
In that great Mass, whence it the Impulse drew.
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Of those beneath, and sink just as these do!
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |