RESOLUTION

I SEE the work of others, and my heart

Sinks as my own achievement I compare.

— I will not be irresolute, nor despair,

But battle strongly for my struggling art

Convinced against conviction that my part

Equally with my masters I can bear;

Although their monuments are very fair,

Enriched with statues, and I stand apart

And gaze upon my little heap of stones

Which I was given to build with, very few

As yet laid into place, but I will lay

— Blind to these marble monuments and thrones,

Building as though I confidently knew

My ultimate end,— a stone in place each day.