NOT on the neck of prince or hound 
 Nor on a woman?s finger twin?d, 
May gold from the deriding ground 
 Keep sacred that we sacred bind: 
 Only the heel 
 Of splendid steel 
 Shall stand secure on sliding fate, 
 When golden navies weep their freight. 
 
The scarlet hat, the laurell?d stave 
 Are measures, not the springs, of worth; 
In a wife?s lap, as in a grave, 
 Man?s airy notions mix with earth. 
 Seek other spur 
 Bravely to stir 
The dust in this loud world, and tread
Alp-high among the whisp?ring dead. 
 
Trust in thyself,?then spur amain: 
 So shall Charybdis wear a grace, 
Grim AEtna laugh, the Libyan plain 
 Take roses to her shrivell?d face. 
 This orb?this round 
 Of sight and sound? 
 Count it the lists that God hath built 
 For haughty hearts to ride a-tilt.