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