Grouped thoughts and scattered fancies A collection of sonnets |
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XXXVI.
SAME SUBJECT.
[AMBITION. ITS DANGERS.] |
 | Grouped thoughts and scattered fancies |  |
XXXVI.
SAME SUBJECT.
[AMBITION. ITS DANGERS.]
And yet, to perish were the kindlier fate,For one thus feebly striving. Not to die,
Leaves him a puny clamorer for the state,
Denied forever,—evermore too high;
The scorn of all who mark the yearning eye
Forever straining upward, with no wing
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And pluck the sullen honors from the steep!
He toils amid the sterile hills of Time
That mock him with delusions which still fly,
Even as he seeks them, like th' Arabian spring;—
Leaving a desert waste, a gloomy clime,
A weary track before him, gloomier yet,
Night stooping down in storm, and the bright sun long set.
| Grouped thoughts and scattered fancies | |