WHERE wards are weak and foes encount'ring strong, <br /> Where mightier do assault than do defend, <br />The feebler part puts up enforc'd wrong, <br /> And silent sees that speech could not amend. <br />Yet higher powers must think, though they repine, <br />When sun is set, the little stars will shine. <br /> <br />While pike doth range the seely tench doth fly, <br /> And crouch in privy creeks with smaller fish; <br />Yet pikes are caught when little fish go by, <br /> These fleet afloat while those do fill the dish. <br />There is a time even for the worm to creep, <br />And suck the dew while all her foes do sleep. <br /> <br />The merlin cannot ever soar on high, <br /> Nor greedy greyhound still pursue the chase; <br />The tender lark will find a time to fly, <br /> And fearful hare to run a quiet race: <br />He that high growth on cedars did bestow, <br />Gave also lowly mushrumps leave to grow. <br /> <br />In Aman's pomp poor Mardocheus wept, <br /> Yet God did turn his fate upon his foe; <br />The lazar pined while Dives' feast was kept, <br /> Yet he to heaven, to Hell did Dives go. <br />We trample grass, and prize the flowers of May, <br />Yet grass is green when flowers do fade away.<br /><br />Robert Southwell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/scorn-not-the-least/
