"Breathless We Strive"

Breathless we strive, contending for success,According to the standards of our day.What is success? Is it to find a wayWealth out of all proportion to possess?Is it to care for simple pleasures less(While grasping at a more extended sway),And sacrificing to our gods of clay,Submerge the soul, at last, in worldliness?

By Grasmere stands a cottage small and poor:The Dove was once its emblem, and the signThat marked it as a wayside inn obscure;But, frugal, dwelt high consecration here,And grateful thought still guards it as a shrine,Hallowed by that success which time but makes more dear!