WORLDLY PLACE
14 lines✦
Even in a palace, life may be led well!_So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,Marcus Aurelius.° But the stifling den °3Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell, Our freedom for a little bread we sell, 5And drudge under some foolish° master's ken.° °6Who rates° us if we peer outside our pen-- °7Match'd with a palace, is not this a hell? _Even in a palace!_ On his truth sincere,Who spoke these words, no shadow ever came; 10And when my ill-school'd spirit is aflame Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,I'll stop, and say: "There were no succour here!The aids to noble life are all within."
✦
