| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | A Charge | | By Herbert Trench (1865–1923) |
| | | IF thou hast squander’d years to grave a gem | |
| Commission’d by thy absent Lord, and while | |
| ’Tis incomplete, | |
| Others would bribe thy needy skill to them— | |
| Dismiss them to the street! | 5 |
| |
| Should’st thou at last discover Beauty’s grove, | |
| At last be panting on the fragrant verge, | |
| But in the track, | |
| Drunk with divine possession, thou meet Love— | |
| Turn at her bidding back. | 10 |
| |
| When round thy ship in tempest Hell appears, | |
| And every spectre mutters up more dire | |
| To snatch control | |
| And loose to madness thy deep-kennell’d Fears— | |
| Then to the helm, O Soul! | 15 |
| |
| Last; if upon the cold green-mantling sea | |
| Thou cling, alone with Truth, to the last spar, | |
| Both castaway, | |
| And one must perish—let it not be he | |
| Whom thou art sworn to obey! | 20 | | | |
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