Poems (Hoffman)/What Shall It Profit Me?
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT ME?
What shall it profit me to gainAll that this world to man hath given,If I neglect to here obtainA passport through the gates of Heaven?The best success of life to make,Be this my one supreme endeavor,And bid Time's jarring chords awakeThe prelude of the vast forever.
What shall it profit me to earnThe meed of Fame, the applause of Nations?What shall it profit me to learnThe wisdom of God's vast creations,If Time with a remorseless sweepShall blight the brightest hopes we cherish,If all, yea all, we long to keepWith these dissolving temples perish?
O God! what shall it profit me,Whose hopes and longings are immortal,To grasp each fading flower I seeAnd leave them at the Future's portal,To sell my soul for worldly gain,To barter Hope for Pleasure's bubble,To buy with Peace eternal pain,And plunge my soul in endless trouble!