Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 45-48
Yet still one general cry the sky assails,
And gain and grandeur load the tainted gales;
Few know the toiling statesman's fear or care,
Th' insidious rival, and the gaping heir.
- Despite all the trouble that wealth brings, people still wish for more money. In a turn of figurative language, the speaker notes that the wind is full of people's cries for more profit and for power.
- Few people know the worries that the statesman (or politician) has to deal with, including having to worry about scheming rivals, and his anxiety over who will inherit his title.