 | The Poems of Mackenzie Bell |  |
THE BOY CHATTERTON TO HIMSELF.
“Sublime of thought, and confident of fame.”
Coleridge, Monody on the Death of Chatterton.
That dotard soul I cannot comprehend,
Who knows no hope that, after many years
His name shall be preserved by other means
Than by an entry in the parish books—
The soul who never knew the proud desire
To be remembered in far days unborn
By some great deed accomplished.
Who knows no hope that, after many years
His name shall be preserved by other means
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The soul who never knew the proud desire
To be remembered in far days unborn
By some great deed accomplished.
Therefore here
I make a vow—a vow unchanging, strong:
I will redeem the time, and, though the days
Are evil, yet it will be my delight
To toil unceasingly, that at the last
It shall be seen I have not lived in vain.
Men's hours are passed as sacred Scripture saith—
“They eat, they drink, are merry, and they die.”
Few daily doings are of much account
In fifty years; then let my mind be set
On some fit theme meet for my noblest powers.
I make a vow—a vow unchanging, strong:
I will redeem the time, and, though the days
Are evil, yet it will be my delight
To toil unceasingly, that at the last
It shall be seen I have not lived in vain.
Men's hours are passed as sacred Scripture saith—
“They eat, they drink, are merry, and they die.”
Few daily doings are of much account
In fifty years; then let my mind be set
On some fit theme meet for my noblest powers.
| The Poems of Mackenzie Bell | |