I.

I was well born
A wise, free maiden grew to womanhood,
Guiding and training her young life for me;
With splendid body, vigorous and strong;
A heart well used; a brain of fluent power
She gloried in the crown of motherhood;
And chose a father fit to share her reign;
And the two, reverent, passionate, devout,
Gave me my entailed heritage full store,
The better for their loyal stewardship.

II.

I was well trained
My schooling opened with my baby eyes,
Was breathed with my first breathing Purest air,
All sunlight and sweet winds and waves were mine.
Life came to me translated to the tongue
That I could understand and profit by.
I drank in wisdom with unconscious sense;
Long centuries of labor, glorified
Into profound simplicity by art,
Grew mine in brief, bright hours of playtime there
They taught me — all who ever lived before —
Taught me free use of body, use of brain,
And sent me forth a full developed man,
With easy mastery of his powers.

III.

And I am rich
I revel in immeasurable wealth;
Sitting, aweary of one day's delight
And picturing my endless treasures;
Those I have counted — those I draw from now —
And those beyond exhaustion still to come:
Running my fingers through the heaps of gems
And tossing them, for gifts, till hands are tired
So rich, so rich beyond all fear or doubt
That no desire for my own private need
Can ever enter my untroubled mind.
I am secure as rolls the easy sun,
And there remains but this: To Act! To Do!

IV.

Shall I not work?
I, who am wholly free and have no care;
I, with such press of power at my command;
I, who stand here in front of human life
And feel the push of all the heaving past
Straining against my hand!
Immortal life,
Eternal, indestructible, the same
In flower, and beast, and savage, now in me
Urges and urges to expression new.
Work? Shall I take from those blind laboring years
Their painful fruit and not contribute now
My share of gifts so easy to our time?
Shall I receive so much, support the weight
Of age-long obligation, and not turn
In sheerest pride, and strive to set my mark
A little past the record made before?
Shall it be said, " He took, from all the world,
Of its accumulated countless wealth,
As much as he could hold, and never gave!
Spiritless Beggar! Pauper! Parasite! "

Life is not long enough to let me work
As I desire. But all the years will hold
Shall I pour forth. Perhaps it may be mine
To do some deed was never done before
And ease my obligation to the world!