 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
97
DUTY.
Pearls before swine: this is an old complaint;In very humbleness and not in pride
The spirit feels it true; yet makes a feint
To rest with man's neglect well satisfied,
And have its wealth of words, its stores of thought,
Despised or unregarded: woe betide
The heart that lives on praise! considering nought
Of Duty's royal edicts, that command
Thy talents to be lent, thy lamp to shine:
Soul, be not faint; nor, body, stay thy hand;
Heed only this,—not whether those be swine,
But whether these be pearls, precious and pure;
That so, whatever fate the world make thine,
Elsewhere, through Grace, thy guerdon be secure.
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