Explore "Noblesse Oblige" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I hold it the duty of one who is gifted / And specially dowered in all men's sight, / To know no rest till his life is lifted / Fully up to his great gifts' height.
He must mould the man into rare completeness, / For gems are set only in gold refined. / He must fashion his thoughts into perfect sweetness. / And cast out folly and pride from his mind.
For he who drinks from a god's gold fountain / Of art or music or rhythmic song / Must sift from his soul the chaff of malice, / And weed from his heart the roots of wrong.
Great gifts should be worn, like a crown befitting, / And not like gems in a beggar's hands! / And the toil must be constant and unremitting / Which lifts up the king to the crown's demands.