The Poetry of Real Life | ||
168
AMBITION.
The votary of Ambition climbs the heightsOf power, and behind him leaves the flowers
Of life, the pleasant pathways, and the bowers
Where Love still dallies with his own delights,
And with more than he promises requites!
He leaves all these for careful-thoughted hours,
And his brief pleasures he by force deflours,
Not calmly weds! while through his satellites
The world receives his light, if he succeeds,
And thanks not him—receives it fainter, as
Men sunlight through the moon—so doth he pass
Onward, and his affections treads, like weeds,
Beneath his feet: to find Power but a glass
Which shows that still to Vanity all leads!
The Poetry of Real Life | ||