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.
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.