Who says that power is bliss? The glory <br />Bought by a million's blood for one <br />To reign, to die, yet live in story- <br />The greatest murderer 'neath the sun! <br />Who envies such a fate? The madness <br />That weaves of straw the fancied crown <br />Is happier in its frantic gladness, <br />Than he upon his couch of down. <br />Ambition's vulture gnaws not ever. <br />The monarch's soul may sometimes start <br />From dreams, whose wizard spell to sever <br />Were harder than with life to part. <br />What memories must then awaken <br />Of justice scorned in guilty pride? <br />How must the conqueror's heart be shaken <br />In wasting passion's lava tide! <br />That swift convulsion of the spirit, <br />So brief, so fierce, yet soon forgot, <br />Ambition's sons must all inherit. <br />'Tis Satan's, and 'twas Xerxes' lot.<br /><br />Peter John Allan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ambition-25/
