Robert Browning

That low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it;
This high man, read more

That low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it;
This high man, with a great thing to pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.
That low man goes on adding one to one,
His hundreds soon hit:
His high man, aiming at a million,
Misses an unit.

What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up,
And be discharged, and straight wound up anew?
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What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up,
And be discharged, and straight wound up anew?
No! grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets;
May learn a thousand things, not twice the same.

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, read more

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to flight better,
Sleep to wake.

For thence,--a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,--
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
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For thence,--a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,--
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

Who hears music feels his solitude peopled at once.

Who hears music feels his solitude peopled at once.