To James Norton Esq.

Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
       If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
       And resolute man in any cause that’s true,
       Because I scorn to juggle with yon crew
Of politics schemers? Let the truth be told:
Whatever I can value, I can mould
       Right deftly to my ends, and boldly too.
“But fame he sought not through a gainful hand”
       (This of my being let future tell),
“Nor through the arts of popular command;
       But in retirement, where the muses dwell,
       That his life’s legacy might be—a well
Pierian, in a wide and thirsty land. ”