To the Duke of Wellington + 

On Hearing Him Mispraised + 

Because thou hast believ’d, the wheels of life + 

Stand never idle, but go always round: + 

Not by their hands, who vex the patient ground, + 

Mov’d only; but by genius, in the strife + 

Of all its chafing torrents after thaw, + 

Urg’d; and to feed whose movement, spinning sand, + 

The feeble sons of pleasure set their hand: + 

And, in this vision of the general law, + 

Hast labour’d with the foremost, hast become + 

Laborious, persevering, serious, firm; + 

For this, thy track, across the fretful foam + 

Of vehement actions without scope or term, + 

Call’d History, keeps a splendour: due to wit, + 

Which saw one clue to life, and follow’d it. + 