In Vinculis, XIII: A Dream of Good

To do some little good before I die ;
To wake some echoes to a loftier theme ;
To spend my life's last store of industry
On thoughts less vain than Youth's discordant dream ;
To endow the world's grief with some counter-scheme
Of logical hope which through all time should lighten
The burden of men's sorrow and redeem
Their faces' paleness from the tears that whiten ;
To take my place in the world's brotherhood
As one prepared to suffer all its fate ;
To do and be undone for sake of good,
And conquer rage by giving love for hate ;
That were a noble dream, and so to cease
Scorned by the proud but with the poor at peace.