Explore "Strength" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Who is the strong? Not he who puts to test / His sinews with the strong and proves the best; / But he who dwells where weaklings congregate, / And never lets his splendid strength abate.
Who is the good? Not he who walks each day / With moral men along the high, clean way; / But he who jostles gilded sin and shame, / Yet will not sell his honour or his name.
Who is the wise? Not he who from the start / With Wisdom's followers has taken part; / But he who looks in Folly's tempting eyes, / And turns away, perceiving her disguise.
Who is serene? Not he who flees his kind, / Some mountain fastness, or some cave to find; / But he who in the city's noisiest scene, / Keeps calm within-he only is serene.