Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting;
Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil,
Labourers that shall not fail, when man is gone.

SHAKESPEARE deg.

Others abide our question.  Thou art free. 
We ask and ask—­Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge.  For the loftiest hill,
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, 5
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foil’d searching of mortality;

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know
Self-school’d, self-scann’d, self-honour’d, self-secure, 10
Didst tread on earth unguess’d at.—­Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow
Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.

YOUTH’S AGITATIONS deg.

When I shall be divorced, some ten years hence,
From this poor present self which I am now;
When youth has done its tedious vain expense
Of passions that for ever ebb and flow;

Shall I not joy deg. youth’s heats deg. are left behind, deg.5
And breathe more happy in an even clime deg.?—­ deg.6
Ah no, for then I shall begin to find
A thousand virtues in this hated time!

Then I shall wish its agitations back,
And all its thwarting currents of desire; 10
Then I shall praise the heat which then I lack,
And call this hurrying fever, deg. generous fire; deg.12

And sigh that one thing only has been lent
To youth and age in common—­discontent.

AUSTERITY OF POETRY deg.

That son of Italy deg. who tried to blow, deg.1
Ere Dante deg. came, the trump of sacred song, deg.2
In his light youth deg. amid a festal throng deg.3
Sate with his bride to see a public show.

Fair was the bride, and on her front did glow 5
Youth like a star; and what to youth belong—­
Gay raiment, sparkling gauds, elation strong. 
A prop gave way! crash fell a platform! lo,

’Mid struggling sufferers, hurt to death, she lay! 
Shuddering, they drew her garments off—­and found 10
A robe of sackcloth deg. next the smooth, white skin. deg.11

Such, poets, is your bride, the Muse! young, gay,
Radiant, adorn’d outside; a hidden ground
Of thought and of austerity within.

WORLDLY PLACE

Even in a palace, life may be led well!
So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,
Marcus Aurelius. deg.  But the stifling den deg.3
Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,