Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various
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will burn,
The winds must blow around the earthly ball,
The earthly ball by day and night must turn;
Freedom is typed in every element,
Man must be free, if not through law, why then
Above the law, until its force be spent
And justice brings a better. But, O, when,
Father of Light, when shall the reckoning come
To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb.
—Christopher Pearse Cranch.
———
What I am, what I am not, in the eye
Of the world, is what I never cared for much.
—Robert Browning.
———
I RESOLVE
To keep my health;
To do my work;
To live;
To see to it that I grow and gain and give;
Never to look behind me for an hour;
To wait in meekness, and to walk in power;
But always fronting onward, to the light,
Always and always facing toward the right.
Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, wide-astray—
On, with what strength I have—
Back to the way.
—Charlotte Perkins Stetson.
———
IN MYSELF
I do not ask for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.
Be thou my guide until I find
Led by a tender hand,
The happy kingdom in myself
And dare to take command.
—Louisa May Alcott.
———
HIDE NOT THY HEART
This is my creed,
This is my deed:
"Hide not thy heart!"
Soon we depart;
Mortals are all;
A breath, then the pall;
A flash on the dark—
All's done—stiff and stark.
No time for a lie;
The truth, and then die.
Hide not thy heart!
Forth with thy thought!
Soon 'twill be naught,
And thou in thy tomb.
Now is air, now is room.
Down with false shame;
Reck not of fame;
Dread not man's spite;
Quench not thy light.
This be thy creed,
This be thy deed:
"Hide not thy heart!"
If God is, he made
Sunshine and shade,
Heaven and hell;
This we know well.
Dost thou believe?
Do not deceive;
Scorn not thy faith—
If 'tis a wraith
Soon it will fly.
Thou who must die,
Hide not thy heart!
This is my creed,
This be my deed:
Faith, or a doubt,
I shall speak out—
And hide not my heart.
—Richard Watson Gilder.
———
A GENTLEMAN
(Psa. xv.)
'Tis he whose every thought and deed
By rule of virtue moves;
Whose generous tongue disdains to speak
The thing his heart disproves.
Who never did a slander forge
His neighbor's fame to wound;
Nor hearken to a false report
By malice whispered round.
Who vice in all its pomp and power
Can treat with just neglect;
And piety, though clothed in rags,
Religiously respect.
Who to his plighted word of truth
Has ever firmly stood;
And, though he promised to his loss,
Still makes his promise good.
Whose soul in usury disdains
His treasure to employ;
Whom no reward can ever bribe
The guiltless to destroy.
———
I hold it as a changeless law,
From which no soul can sway or swerve,
We have that in us which will draw
Whate'er we need or most deserve.
———
BE TRUE THYSELF
Thou must be true thyself
If thou the truth wouldst teach;
Thy soul must overflow if thou
Another's soul wouldst reach.
It needs the overflow of heart
To give the lips full speech.
Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.
—Horatius Bonar.
———
Keep pure thy soul!
Then shalt thou take the whole
Of delight;
Then, without a pang,
Thine shall be all of beauty whereof the poet sang—
The perfume and the