In the Harbour: a Quiet Life
from The French
In the Harbour: a Quiet Life - meaning Summary
Quiet Life Over Glory
The speaker rejects ambition and public glory, choosing a simple, contemplative life at home. He values quiet observation of daily and seasonal cycles, expecting to grow old in serene repose and to die obscure but fulfilled. The poem contrasts this inward contentment with the hollow fame of those who win honors yet remain alienated from themselves, offering a moral claim about authenticity over social distinction.
Read Complete AnalysesLet him who will, by force or fraud innate, Of courtly grandeurs gain the slippery height; I, leaving not the home of my delight, Far from the world and noise will meditate. Then, without pomps or perils of the great, I shall behold the day succeed the night; Behold the alternate seasons take their flight, And in serene repose old age await. And so, whenever Death shall come to close The happy moments that my days compose, I, full of years, shall die, obscure, alone! How wretched is the man, with honors crowned, Who, having not the one thing needful found, Dies, known to all, but to himself unknown.
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