Lord Lytton

The sylphs and ondines
And the sea-kings and queens
Long ago, long ago, on the waves built read more

The sylphs and ondines
And the sea-kings and queens
Long ago, long ago, on the waves built a city,
As lovely as seems
To some bard in his dreams,
The soul of his latest love-ditty.

That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise read more

That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:
Content to know and be unknown:
Whole in himself.

It smelt so faint, and it smelt so sweet,
It made me creep and it made me cold.
read more

It smelt so faint, and it smelt so sweet,
It made me creep and it made me cold.
Like the scent that steals from the crumbling sheet
Where a mummy is half unroll'd.

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be read more

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.

There is purpose in pain,
Otherwise it were devilish.

There is purpose in pain,
Otherwise it were devilish.