Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/181



is Glory? What is Fame? The echo of a long lost name; A breath, an idle hour's brief talk; The shadow of an arrant nought; A flower that blossoms for a day, Dying next morrow; A stream that hurries on its way, Singing of sorrow;— The last drop of a bootless shower, Shed on a sere and leafless bower; A rose, stuck in a dead man's breast— This is the World's fame at the best!

What is Fame? and what is Glory? A dream—a jester's lying story, To tickle fools withal, or be A theme for second infancy; A joke scrawled on an epitaph; A grin at Death's own ghastly laugh;