<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Confidence</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WHEN criticasters of a day</p><p class="line">Seem to have sneered me quite away;</p><p class="line">When with a pontiff's frown</p><p class="line">Some dabbler puts me down;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When up from out the nursery start</p><p class="line">Sages to teach me mine own art—</p><p class="line">Guides in that field my share</p><p class="line">Ploughed long before they were,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When gusts of fashion brief as vain</p><p class="line">Sow wide a tasteless taste inane,</p><p class="line">When Folly, night and morn,</p><p class="line">Scatters on me her scorn;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When they who could bestow, refuse</p><p class="line">With deathless spite the admitted dues;</p><p class="line">When slanderous lips aver</p><p class="line">I am the slanderer,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then, draining mine appointed cup.</p><p class="line">In patience do I gird me up.</p><p class="line">Knowing that Time, one day.</p><p class="line">All his arrears will pay.</p></div></body></html> · Great War