Poems (Hardy)/Vocations
VOCATIONS
"IF this be all of life," said one who fared Along a hillward way with head perpend, "If this be all of life, why, come the end!What good in joys one has not had and shared?Yon minstrel, velvet-clad and yellow-haired,— The king keeps him to stare and fool and spend'— I would be he, would but my fortune mend;Forget what I aspired to, what I dared."He laid him down beneath a thicket shade; He slept a dreamless sleep and saw the world Anew; he rose and lifted up a stoneAnd set it in a torrent's path and made A city safe from ruin, all but hurled Upon its peace by mountain tempests thrown.