Rosemary and Pansies/Resignation
For works with similar titles, see Resignation.
RESIGNATION
To form vast projects which a dozen lives To carry out would be by fer too short, Though each were as a Cromwell's or a Clive's, And fate disposed to favour, not to thwart: To long for action yet feel impotent To act were action offered to my hand; To mourn for ever over time misspent, While runneth out my life's fast-falling sand: Could fate a sadder destiny devise When most disposed to humble human pride? And yet no longer now it mortifies, And I in patient fortitude abide: For yet I am myself and would not be Another even for an empire's fee.