82 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Since I Am Noi What I Was
VBNXJS, take my votive glass :
Since I am not what 1 was,
What from this day I shall be,
Venus, let me never see.
Matthew Prior on a lady
offering her glass to Venus
Reinforcements
WHEN little boys with merry noise
In the meadows shout and run ;
And little girls, sweet woman buds*
Brightly open In the sun ;
I may not of the world despair,
Our God despaireth not, I sec ;
For blithesomer in Eden*s air
These lads and maidens could not be.
Why were they born, if Hope must die ?
Wherefore this health, if Truth should fail ?
And why such Joy, if Misery
Be conquering us and must prevail ?
Arouse 1 our spirit may not droop !
These young ones fresh from Heaven are ;
Our God hath sent another troop.
And means to carry on the war*
Thomm ToJce Lynch
Go, Ask the Poor
His epitaph shall mock the shortlived stone,
No liehen shall its lines efface9
He needs these few and simple lines alone
To mark his resting place ;
Here lies a Poet. Stranger, if to theŽ
His claim to memory be obscure,
If thou wouldst learn how truly great wa$ he,
Go* ask it of the poor*
JameŽ Russell Lowell
Be Noble
TJ K noble ; and the nobleness that lies
JD In other men sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own*
James Hu$$ell Lowell