Fennel.... Strength.
Reading edition
Oh, fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know ere long, Know how sublime a thing it is, To suffer and grow strong. Longfellow.
As the slow beast with heavy strength indued In some wide field by troops of boys pursued, Though round his sides a wooden tempest rain, Crops the tall harvest, and lays waste the plain; Thick on his hide the hollow blows resound, The patient animal maintains his ground, Scarce from the field with all their efforts chased, And stirs but slowly when he stirs at last. On Ajax thus a weight of Trojans hung, The strokes redoubled on his buckler rung; Confiding now in bulky strength he stands, Now turns, and backward bears the yielding bands: Now stiff recedes, yet hardly seems to fly, And threats his followers with retorted eye. Fixed as the bar between two warring powers, While hissing darts descend in iron showers: In his broad buckler many a weapon stood, Its surface bristled with a quivering wood; And many a javelin, guiltless, on the plain Marks the dry dust, and thirsts for blood in vain. Pope.
Thrice sounds the clarion; lo! the signal falls, The den expands, and expectation mute Gapes round the silent circle’s peopled walls. Bounds with one lashing spring the mighty brute, And, wildly staring, spurns, with sounding foot, The sand, nor blindly rushes on his foe: Here, there, he points his threatening front, to suit His first attack, wide waving to and fro His angry tail; red rolls his eye’s dilated glow. Byron.
The lusty strength of youth Is better far than proud decrepitude. With mind and might and fortitude endued, We stand erect and fight for present truth. We’re in the young delight of new existence; The ardent blood leaps lively in our veins; The dim traditions glimmering in the distance We scorn, for objects worthier manly pains. MacKellar.
He that of such a height hath built his mind, And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong, As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame Of his resolved powers; nor do all the wind Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong His settled peace, or to disturb the same: What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may The boundless wastes and weilds of man survey! Daniel.