To Hold Secure by Edna St. Vincent Millay — Read

To hold secure the province of Pure Art,-

What if the crude and weighty task were mine? -

For him who runs, cutting the pen less fine

Than formerly, and in the indignant heart

Dipping it straight? (to issue thence a dart, / And shine no more except as weapons shine) The deeply-loved, the laboured, polished line

Eschew for ever? -this to be my part? Attacked that Temple is which must not fall-

Under whose ancient shade Calliope, / Thalia, Euterpe, the nine Muses all

Went once about their happy business free:

Could I but write the Writing on the Wall! -

What matter, if one poet cease to be.