| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Credo | | By Arthur Symons (1865–1945) |
| | | EACH, in himself, his hour to be and cease | |
| Endures alone, but who of men shall dare, | |
| Sole with himself, his single burden bear, | |
| All the long day until the night’s release? | |
| Yet ere night falls, and the last shadows close, | 5 |
| This labour of himself is each man’s lot; | |
| All he has gain’d of earth shall be forgot, | |
| Himself he leaves behind him when he goes. | |
| If he has any valiancy within, | |
| If he has made his life his very own, | 10 |
| If he has loved or labour’d, and has known | |
| A strenuous virtue, or a strenuous sin; | |
| Then, being dead, his life was not all vain, | |
| For he has saved what most desire to lose, | |
| And he has chosen what the few must choose, | 15 |
| Since life, once lived, shall not return again. | |
| For of our time we lose so large a part | |
| In serious trifles, and so oft let slip | |
| The wine of every moment, at the lip | |
| Its moment, and the moment of the heart. | 20 |
| We are awake so little on the earth, | |
| And we shall sleep so long, and rise so late, | |
| If there is any knocking at that gate | |
| Which is the gate of death, the gate of birth. | | | | |
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