 | The Uncollected Poems of Henry Timrod |  |
SONNET
IF ALL TRUE VIRTUE
If all true virtue was a fever glowFor action, Sister, then might'st thou lament
A powerless frame and means below content:
But think, our acts are but the outward show.
Except they spring from forth the parent heart
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Either to God or man they have no worth.
One of their highest ends is to impart
Knowledge of that which lies within the breast,
The Principle which is their life and cause.
And that is [in?] thine eyes made manifest
And in thy loving voice. Thy Being's laws
Have I not own'd, when in the dark unrest
Of Doubt, some holy scruple gave me pause?
| The Uncollected Poems of Henry Timrod | |