Rosemary and Pansies/Man's Greatness and Littleness
MAN'S GREATNESS AND LITTLENESS
His home a speck in a vast Universe,
He a mere atom on that tiny speck,
Victim of countless evils that coerce
And force him onward on a pathless track;
And yet a being made to dominate
O'er all things else by mind's controlling power:
Spoiled favourite at once and sport of fate,
Football of fortune, time's consummate flower!
To him alone did nature's self impart
A spark of her divinest energy,
With power to create the world of Art,
And intellect to solve all mystery:
So great and yet so little! blessed and cursed,—
Nature's most noble offspring—yet her worst!
He a mere atom on that tiny speck,
Victim of countless evils that coerce
And force him onward on a pathless track;
And yet a being made to dominate
O'er all things else by mind's controlling power:
Spoiled favourite at once and sport of fate,
Football of fortune, time's consummate flower!
To him alone did nature's self impart
A spark of her divinest energy,
With power to create the world of Art,
And intellect to solve all mystery:
So great and yet so little! blessed and cursed,—
Nature's most noble offspring—yet her worst!