--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Alexander Pope collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 1 published: 1901-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Alexander Pope, "Fame," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 1 (November 1901): 20.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0501unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0501unse start_page: 20 end_page: 20 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0501unse publication_year: 1901 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Fame —— 20 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Oh! but to breathe the breath of the cowslip and primrose sweet With the sky above my head, and the grass beneath my feet, For only one short hour to feel as I used to feel, Before I knew the woes of want^md the walk that costs a meal! "Oh! but for one short hour! -a respite however brief! No blessed leisure for Love or Hope, but only time for Grief! A little weeping would ease my heart, but in their briny bed My tears must stop, for every drop hinders needle and thread!" With fingers weary and worn, with eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, plying her needle and thread Stitch —stitch — stich! in poverty, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, —would that its tone could reach the Rich! She sang this "Song of the shirt!" FAME. BY ALEXANDER POPE. What's fame? A fancy'd life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death. Just what you hear, you have; and what's unknown. The same (my lord) if Tully's, or your own. All that we feel of it begins and ends In the small circle of our foes or friends; To all beside as much an empty shade An Eugene living as a Caesar dead; Alike or when, or where, they shone, or shine, Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod; An honest man's the noblest work of God.