No state is enviable. To the luck alone <br />Of some few favoured men I would put claim. <br />I bleed, but her who wounds I will not blame. <br />Have I not felt her heart as 'twere my own <br />Beat thro' me? could I hurt her? heaven and hell! <br />But I could hurt her cruelly! Can I let <br />My Love's old time-piece to another set, <br />Swear it can't stop, and must for ever swell? <br />Sure, that's one way Love drifts into the mart <br />Where goat-legged buyers throng. I see not plain:-- <br />My meaning is, it must not be again. <br />Great God! the maddest gambler throws his heart. <br />If any state be enviable on earth, <br />'Tis yon born idiot's, who, as days go by, <br />Still rubs his hands before him, like a fly, <br />In a queer sort of meditative mirth.<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-love-xix-no-state-is-enviable/
