My Vocation
My Vocation
Original Text
Indian Poetry in English: A Literary
History and Anthology, ed. A. N. Dwivedi (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:
Humanities Press, 1980): 65-66. PR 9495 .25 I5 Robarts Library
2 Sick, ugly and small,
4 And rejected by all,
5From my lips broke a cry,
6 Such as anguish may wring,
7Sing, -- said God in reply,
8 Chant poor little thing.
9By Wealth's coach besmeared
10 With dirt in a shower,
11Insulted and jeered
12 By the minions of power,
13Where -- oh where shall I fly?
14 Who comfort will bring?
15Sing, -- said God in reply,
16 Chant poor little thing.
17Life struck me with fright --
18 Full of chances and pain,
19So I hugged with delight
20 The drudge's hard chain;
21One must eat, -- yet I die,
22 Like a bird with clipped wing,
23Sing -- said God in reply,
24 Chant poor little thing.
25Love cheered for a while
26 My morn with his ray,
27But like a ripple or smile
28 My youth passed away.
29Now near Beauty I sigh,
30 But fled is the spring!
31Sing -- said God in reply,
32 Chant poor little thing.
33All men have a task,
34 And to sing is my lot --
35No meed from men I ask
36 But one kindly thought.
37My vocation is high --
38 'Mid the glasses that ring,
39Still -- still comes that reply,
40 Chant poor little thing.
Notes
1] "Originally written by [Jean-Pierre de] Béranger, this song was `a great favourite of Thackeray. The reader may perhaps remember his reference to it in his lecture on Goldsmith ...' (`Notes,' A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, p. 236)" (Dwivedi, p. 144). Back to Line
3] contemned: slighted, treated with distain. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1876
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2001
Rhyme