The Nobly Born

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  Who counts himself as nobly born
  Is noble in despite of place;
  And honors are but brands to one
  Who wears them not with nature's grace.

  The prince may sit with clown or churl
  Nor feel himself disgraced thereby;
  But he who has but small esteem
  Husbands that little carefully.

  Then, be thou peasant, be thou peer,
  Count it still more thou art thine own.
  Stand on a larger heraldry
  Than that of nation or of zone.

  Art thou not bid to knightly halls?
  Those halls have missed a courtly guest:
  That mansion is not privileged
  Which is not open to the best.

  Give honor due when custom asks,
  Nor wrangle for this lesser claim;
  It is not to be destitute
  To have the thing without the name.

  Then, dost thou come of gentle blood,
  Disgrace not thy good company;
  If lowly born, so bear thyself
  That gentle blood may come of thee.

  Strive not with pain to scale the height
  Of some fair garden's petty wall;
  But climb the open mountain side
  Whose summit rises over all.


  And, for success, I ask no more than this:
  To bear unflinching witness to the truth.
  All true whole men succeed; for what is worth
  Success's name unless it be the thought,
  The inward surety, to have carried out
  A noble purpose to a noble end,
  Although it be the gallows or the block?
  'Tis only Falsehood that doth ever need
  These outward shows of gain to bolster her.

© James Russell Lowell