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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  On a Sermon against Glory

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

On a Sermon against Glory

By Mark Akenside (1721–1770)

COME then, tell me, sage divine,

Is it an offense to own

That our bosoms e’er incline

Toward immortal Glory’s throne?

For with me nor pomp nor pleasure,

Bourbon’s might, Braganza’s treasure,

So can Fancy’s dream rejoice,

So conciliate Reason’s choice,

As one approving word of her impartial voice.

If to spurn at noble praise

Be the passport to thy heaven,

Follow thou those gloomy ways:

No such law to me was given,

Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me

Faring like my friends before me;

Nor an holier place desire

Than Timoleon’s arms acquire,

And Tully’s curule chair, and Milton’s golden lyre.