Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
Objects Which Influence the Ambitious Nature. I. TrophiesHow PlantedWilliam Gilmore Simms (18061870)
T
In youth’s first hour of progress, and delude
With promise dearest to ambitious mood,
Lie not within life’s limits, but arise
Beyond the realm of sunset;—phantoms bright
Glowing above the tomb, having their roots
Even in the worshipper’s heart;—from whence their fruits,
And all that thence grows precious to man’s sight!
Thence, too, their power to lure from beaten ways
That Love hath set with flowers, and thence the spell,
’Gainst which the blood denied may ne’er rebel,
That leads to sleepless nights, and toilsome days,
And sacrifice of all those human joys
That to the ambitious nature seem but toys.