Think you I have not skill to gather gold, <br /> If I could love it as some others do? <br />Or that I lack the spirit of a bold <br /> And resolute man in any cause that’s true, <br /> Because I scorn to juggle with yon crew <br />Of politics schemers? Let the truth be told: <br />Whatever I can value, I can mould <br /> Right deftly to my ends, and boldly too. <br />“But fame he sought not through a gainful hand” <br /> (This of my being let future tell), <br />“Nor through the arts of popular command; <br /> But in retirement, where the muses dwell, <br /> That his life’s legacy might be—a well <br />Pierian, in a wide and thirsty land. ” <br /> <br /><br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-james-norton-esq/
