COLLECTED POEMS
"You know as you live that I have come
To this we call the end.
No doubt you have found me troublesome,
But you've also found a friend;
"For we shall give and you shall take
The gold that is in view;
The mountain there and I shall make
A golden man of you.
"And you shall leave a friend behind
Who neither frets nor feels;
And you shall move among your kind
With hundreds at your heels.
"Now this that I have written here
Tells all that need be told;
So, Vickery, take the way that's clear.
And be a man of gold."
Vickery turned his eyes again
To the far mountain-side,
And wept a tear for worthy men
Defeated and defied.
Since then a crafty score of years
Have come, and they have gone;
But Vickery counts no lost arrears:
He lingers and lives on.
Blue in the west the mountain stands,
Familiar as a face.
Blue, but Vickery knows what sands
Are golden at its base.
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