James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 3

3. 

τὸ δὲ ἀντεισαγόμενον ὕλην ἑαυτῷ ποιεῖ, ὥσπερ τὸ πῦρ, ὅταν ἐπικρατῇ τῶν ἐπεμπιπτόντων, ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἂν μικρός τις λύχνος ἐσβέσθη; τὸ δὲ λαμπρὸν πῦρ τάχιστα ἐξῳκείωσεν ἑαυτῷ τὰ ἐπιφορούμενα καὶ κατηνάλωσεν καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων ἐπὶ μεῖζον ἤρθη.

This turns to account for its own profit whatever is brought against it, like a masterful fire, when it overpowers what is thrown on it. A small blaze would have been smothered by the heap, but a bright and high-flaming fire very soon seizes for its own advantage the things cast on it, making fuel of them, and thrives the more by these very things. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.1 

3. 

Oft have I seen a flame convert to fuel 

Things heaped and hustled on to stifle it, 

Whereby the blaze, prevailing in that duel, 

Doth on his fiery throne victorious sit. 

For flickers faint, feeble to put to act, 

Are haply smothered and from purpose bent; 

But a strong fire, with Nature making pact, 

Converts all matters to his nutriment ; 

To his own substance doth digest his foes, 

Transmuting to become his own estate 

And painting to be ruddier than the rose 

What ’s hurled upon to pale him or abate. 

And so the soul is, or in truth should be, 

That, kindled well, obstruction setteth free.