Poetry Quote of Sir Walter Scott

The Poet

My Native Land by Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish poet born on 15 August 1771. The 9th of his father's children. His father was a member of a cadet branch of the Scotts Clan, and his mother descended from the Haliburton family, the descent from whom granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in Dryburgh Abbey.

The Quote

"Living, shall forfeit fair renown,"

This quote is found in line 13 of the poem "My Native Land"

The Details

Actually, William Shakespeare's Sonnet 3 addressed the same attitude of absurd selfishness a little differently.

The poem told the story of a certain man at the point of his death_ maybe as a cause of injury. He was very wealthy, and high status man but never for once heed the advice of poets to invest in others.

The poem speaker concluded that such rich man would die without honour.

Let butcher the quote flesh after flesh, if "Renown" from the the context of the poem refers to the praises the man has gathered through his achievements and "Forfeit" which is a verb refers to the man's failure to keep an obligation. 

Therefore, the lesson to be learnt from the quote is that, the way a person chooses to live his or her life might destroy his or her good reputation.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)