"Even in a palace, life may be led well!"
So spoke the imperial sage, purest of men,
Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den
Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,
Our freedom for a little bread we sell,
And drudge under some foolish master's ken,
Who rates us if we peer outside our pen--
Matched with a palace, is not this a hell?
"Even in a palace!" On his truth sincere,
Who spoke these words no shadow ever came;
And when my ill-schooled spirit is aflame
Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
I'll stop and say: "There were no succor here!
The aids to noble life are all within."
--Matthew Arnold.