Poems (Wordsworth, 1815)/Volume 2/Brave Schill!
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XVII.
Brave Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight
From Prussia's timid region. Go, and rest
With Heroes 'mid the Islands of the Blest,
Or in the Fields of empyrean light.
A Meteor wert thou in a darksome night;
Yet shall thy name, conspicuous and sublime,
Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.
Alas! it may not be: for earthly fame
Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet there lives
A Judge, who, as man claims by merit, gives;
To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed;
In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.