Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various
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himself obeyed.
If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,
He cannot fare amiss;
Great Nature hath him in her care,
Her cause is his;
Who holds by everlasting law
Which neither chance nor change can flaw,
Whose steadfast course is one
With whatsoever forces draw
The ages on;
Who hath not bowed his honest head
To base Occasion; nor, in dread
Of Duty, shunned her eye;
Nor truckled to loud times; nor wed
His heart to a lie;
Nor feared to follow, in the offense
Of false opinion, his own sense
Of justice unsubdued;
Nor shrunk from any consequence
Of doing good;
He looks his Angel in the face
Without a blush; nor heeds disgrace
Whom naught disgraceful done
Disgraces. Who knows nothing base
Fears nothing known.
Not morseled out from day to day
In feverish wishes, nor the prey
Of hours that have no plan,
His life is whole, to give away
To God and man.
For though he live aloof from ken,
The world's unwitnessed denizen,
The love within him stirs
Abroad, and with the hearts of men
His own confers.
The judge upon the justice-seat;
The brown-backed beggar in the street;
The spinner in the sun;
The reapers reaping in the wheat;
The wan-cheeked nun
In cloisters cold; the prisoner lean
In lightless den, the robèd queen;
Even the youth who waits,
Hiding the knife, to glide unseen
Between the gates—
He nothing human alien deems
Unto himself, nor disesteems
Man's meanest claim upon him.
And where he walks the mere sunbeams
Drop blessings on him.
Because they know him Nature's friend,
One whom she doth delight to tend
With loving kindness ever:
Helping and heartening to the end
His high endeavor.
—Edward Bulwer Lytton.
———
FAME AND DUTY
What shall I do lest life in silence pass?
"And if it do,
And never prompt the bray of noisy brass,
What need'st thou rue?
Remember, aye the ocean-deeps are mute—
The shallows roar;
Worth is the ocean—fame is but the bruit
Along the shore."
What shall I do to be forever known?
"Thy duty ever!"
This did full many who yet slept unknown.
"O never, never!
Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown
Whom thou know'st not?
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown—
Divine their lot."
What shall I do, an heir of endless life?
"Discharge aright
The simple dues with which each day is rife,
Yea, with thy might.
Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise
Will life be fled,
While he who ever acts as conscience cries,
Shall live, though dead."
—Johann C. F. Schiller.
———
NOBLE LIVES
There are hearts which never falter
In the battle for the right;
There are ranks which never alter
Watching through the darkest night;
And the agony of sharing
In the fiercest of the strife
Only gives a nobler daring,
Only makes a grander life.
There are those who never weary
Bearing suffering and wrong;
Though the way is long and dreary
It is vocal with their song,
While their spirits in God's furnace,
Bending to His gracious will,
Are fashioned in a purer mold
By His loving, matchless skill.
There are those whose loving mission
'Tis to bind the bleeding heart;
And to teach a calm submission
When the pain and sorrow smart.
They are angels, bearing to us
Love's rich ministry of peace,
While the night is nearing to us
When life's bitter trials cease.
There are those who battle slander,
Envy, jealousy and hate;
Who would rather die than pander
To the passions of earth's great;
No earthly power can ever crush them,
They dread not the tyrant's frown;
Fear or favor cannot hush them,
Nothing bind their spirits down.
These, these alone are truly great;
These are the conquerors of fate;
These truly live, they never die;
But, clothed with immortality,
When they lay their armor down
Shall enter and receive the crown.
———