toil

How finish'd with illustrious toil appears

This small, well-polish'd gem, the work of years!

Imperial wonders raised on nations spoil'd

Where mix'd with slaves the groaning martyr toil'd:

Huge theatres, that now unpeopled woods,

The various offerings of the world appear;

From each she nicely culls with curious toil,

And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil.

Ye are bondmen and bondwomen, to be scourged and smart,

To toil and tend."

All the world is wearied, east and west,

Tired with toil to watch the slow sun wheeling,

Twelve loud hours of life's laborious quest.

As fire to frost, as ease to toil, as dew

To flowerless fields, as sleep to slackening pain,

By no self-binding ordinance prest

To toil in labour they detest:

By no deceiving reasoning tied

I left you; yet I stinted still my ease,

Curtailed my pleasures toil still extra toil,

To repay you for what you never gave.