Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Good, Great Man

'How seldom, friend! a good great man inherits
Honour or wealth with all his worth and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits
If any man obtain that which he merits
Or any merit that which he obtains.'

Reply to the Above

For shame, dear friend, renounce this canting strain!
What would'st thou have a good great man obtain?
Place? titles? salary? a gilded chain?
Or throne of corses which his sword had slain?
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The good great man? three treasures, LOVE, and LIGHT,
And CALM THOUGHTS, regular as infant's breath:
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,
HIMSELF, his MAKER, and the ANGEL DEATH! 

1. Home-Sick. Written In Germany
2. Duty Surviving Self-Love, the Only Sure Friend of Declining Life
3. To the Autumnal Moon
4. To a Lady, Offended by a Sportive Observation That Women Have No Souls
5. What Is an Epigram?

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