The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Source: Leaves of Grass, O Me! O Life! (1892 edition)
Topic
Ambition is desire reaching beyond present circumstance toward a larger future. In these quotes, ambition appears as energy, aspiration, and danger. Some lines distinguish ambition from what a person has already done, placing it instead in the realm of what one longs to attempt. Others warn that the ambitious person may become dependent on everyone whose approval or assistance can advance fortune. The collection therefore treats ambition as morally mixed. It can raise standards, awaken discipline, and create useful work. It can also enslave attention to status, comparison, and endless bargaining for position. The question is not whether ambition should exist, but what it serves and what it costs. Read this topic when your goals are growing louder, and let these quotes help you align ambition with character so striving expands your life rather than consuming it. Let ambition remain answerable to conscience, so success does not cost the self it was meant to enlarge.
The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest Offices; so climbing is performed in the same Posture with creeping.