Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
And resolute man in any cause that-s true,
Because I scorn to juggle with yon crew
Of politics schemers? Let the truth be told:
Whatever I can value, I can mould
Right deftly to my ends, and boldly too.
-But fame he sought not through a gainful hand�
(This of my being let future tell),
-Nor through the arts of popular command;
But in retirement, where the muses dwell,
That his life-s legacy might be-a well
Pierian, in a wide and thirsty land. �