Tag: acceptance

Here rests his head upon the lap of EarthA Youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. From: Thomas Gray, "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard"

To thee the falling leaf but fades to bearIts hues and odours to some fresher air...In one eternal round they go and come;And where they travel, there hast thou a homeFor thy far-reaching thoughts.—O, Power Divine,Has this poor worm a spirit so like Thine?Unwrap its folds, and clear its wings to go!Would I could quit … Continue reading Expressions May 2025 VIII

Our time consumes like smoke, and posts away,Nor can we treasure up a month or day . . . .Consider how the lingring hour-glass sendsSand after sand, until the stock it spends.Year after year we do consume away,Until our debt to Nature we do pay.Old age is full of grief: the life of man(If we … Continue reading Expressions May 2025 VII

Can storied urn or animated bustBack to its mansion call the fleeting breath?Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,Or Flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of Death? From: Thomas Gray, "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard"

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,Await alike th' inevitable hour.The paths of glory lead but to the grave.   ←  From: Thomas Gray, "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard"

What then could tempt thee, in a critic age,Such blooming hopes to forfeit on a stage?Could it be worth thy wond'rous waste of pains?To publish to the world thy lack of brains?Or might not reason, e'en to thee, have shewnThy greatest praise had been to live UNKNOWN?Yet let not vanity, like thine, despair:Fortune makes Folly her … Continue reading Expressions May 2025 IV