University of Virginia Library

I.AMBITION.

To rise up step by step from hall to dais;
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,
Great prize of a long life's toil, and those eyes
Below it like dead oysters:—shut thine own,
And think of Christ or of the sky star-sown!