Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various
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port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
———
DEMAND FOR MEN
The world wants men—large-hearted, manly men;
Men who shall join its chorus and prolong
The psalm of labor, and the psalm of love.
The times want scholars—scholars who shall shape
The doubtful destinies of dubious years,
And land the ark that bears our country's good
Safe on some peaceful Ararat at last.
The age wants heroes—heroes who shall dare
To struggle in the solid ranks of truth;
To clutch the monster error by the throat;
To bear opinion to a loftier seat;
To blot the era of oppression out,
And lead a universal freedom on.
And heaven wants souls—fresh and capacious souls;
To taste its raptures, and expand, like flowers,
Beneath the glory of its central sun.
It wants fresh souls—not lean and shrivelled ones;
It wants fresh souls, my brother, give it thine.
If thou indeed wilt be what scholars should;
If thou wilt be a hero, and wilt strive
To help thy fellow and exalt thyself,
Thy feet at last shall stand on jasper floors;
Thy heart, at last, shall seem a thousand hearts—
Each single heart with myriad raptures filled—
While thou shalt sit with princes and with kings,
Rich in the jewel of a ransomed soul.
———
Blessed are they who die for God,
And earn the martyr's crown of light;
Yet he who lives for God may be
A greater conqueror in his sight.
———
Better to stem with heart and hand
The roaring tide of life than lie,
Unmindful, on its flowery strand,
Of God's occasions drifting by!
———
TRUTH
Truth will prevail, though men abhor
The glory of its light;
And wage exterminating war
And put all foes to flight.
Though trodden under foot of men,
Truth from the dust will spring,
And from the press—the lip—the pen—
In tones of thunder ring.
Beware—beware, ye who resist
The light that beams around,
Lest, ere you look through error's mist,
Truth strike you to the ground.
—D. C. Colesworthy.
———
TO A REFORMER
Nay, now, if these things that you yearn to teach
Bear wisdom, in your judgment, rich and strong,
Give voice to them though no man heed your speech,
Since right is right though all the world go wrong.
The proof that you believe what you declare
Is that you still stand firm though throngs pass by;
Rather cry truth a lifetime to void air
Than flatter listening millions with one lie!
—Edgar Fawcett.
———
TEACH ME THE TRUTH
Teach me the truth, Lord, though it put to flight
My cherished dreams and fondest fancy's play;
Give me to know the darkness from the light,
The night from day.
Teach me the truth, Lord, though my heart may break
In casting out the falsehood for the true;
Help me to take my shattered life and make
Its actions new.
Teach me the truth, Lord, though my feet may fear
The rocky path that opens out to me;
Rough it may be, but let the way be clear
That leads to thee.
Teach me the truth, Lord. When false creeds decay,
When man-made dogmas vanish with the night,
Then, Lord, on thee my darkened soul shall stay,
Thou living Light.
—Frances Lockwood Green.
———
HEROISM
It takes great strength to train
To modern service your ancestral brain;
To lift the weight of the unnumbered years
Of dead men's habits, methods, and ideas;
To hold that back with one hand, and support
With the other the weak steps of the new thought.
It takes great strength to bring your life up square
With your accepted thought and hold it there;
Resisting the inertia that drags back
From new attempts to the old habit's track.
It is so easy to drift back, to sink;
So hard to live abreast of what you think.
It takes great strength to live where you belong
When other people think that you are wrong;
People you love, and who love you, and whose
Approval is a pleasure you would choose.
To bear this pressure and succeed at length
In living your belief—well, it takes strength,
And courage, too. But what does courage mean
Save strength to help you face a pain foreseen?
Courage to undertake this lifelong strain
Of setting yours against your grand-sire's brain;
Dangerous risk of walking lone and free
Out of the easy paths that used