Poems (Hoffman)/What Shall It Profit Me?
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT ME?
What shall it profit me to gain
All that this world to man hath given,
If I neglect to here obtain
A 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 awake
The prelude of the vast forever.
All that this world to man hath given,
If I neglect to here obtain
A 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 awake
The prelude of the vast forever.
What shall it profit me to earn
The meed of Fame, the applause of Nations?
What shall it profit me to learn
The wisdom of God's vast creations,
If Time with a remorseless sweep
Shall blight the brightest hopes we cherish,
If all, yea all, we long to keep
With these dissolving temples perish?
The meed of Fame, the applause of Nations?
What shall it profit me to learn
The wisdom of God's vast creations,
If Time with a remorseless sweep
Shall blight the brightest hopes we cherish,
If all, yea all, we long to keep
With these dissolving temples perish?
O God! what shall it profit me,
Whose hopes and longings are immortal,
To grasp each fading flower I see
And 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!
Whose hopes and longings are immortal,
To grasp each fading flower I see
And 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!