| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Splendid Spur |
| | | Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) |
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| NOT on the neck of prince or hound | |
| Nor on a woman’s finger twin’d, | |
| May gold from the deriding ground | |
| Keep sacred that we sacred bind: | |
| Only the heel | 5 |
| Of splendid steel | |
| Shall stand secure on sliding fate, | |
| When golden navies weep their freight. | |
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| The scarlet hat, the laurell’d stave | |
| Are measures, not the springs, of worth; | 10 |
| In a wife’s lap, as in a grave, | |
| Man’s airy notions mix with earth. | |
| Seek other spur | |
| Bravely to stir | |
| The dust in this loud world, and tread | 15 |
| Alp-high among the whisp’ring dead. | |
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| Trust in thyself,—then spur amain: | |
| So shall Charybdis wear a grace, | |
| Grim Ætna laugh, the Libyan plain | |
| Take roses to her shrivell’d face. | 20 |
| This orb—this round | |
| Of sight and sound— | |
| Count it the lists that God hath built | |
| For haughty hearts to ride a-tilt. | |
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