 | Poems |  |
II.
Life is too good to waste, enough to prize;
Keep looking round with clear unhooded eyes;
Love all thy brothers, and for them endure
Many privations, the reward is sure.
Keep looking round with clear unhooded eyes;
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Many privations, the reward is sure.
A little thing! There is no little thing;
Through all a joyful song is murmuring,
Each leaf, each stem, each sound in winter drear
Hath deepest meanings for an anxious ear.
Through all a joyful song is murmuring,
Each leaf, each stem, each sound in winter drear
Hath deepest meanings for an anxious ear.
Thou seest life is sad; the father mourns his wife and child;
Keep in the midst of sorrows a fair aspect mild.
Keep in the midst of sorrows a fair aspect mild.
A howling fox, a shrieking owl,
A violent distracting Ghoul,
Forms of the most infuriate madness,—
These may not move thy soul to gladness,
But look within the dark outside,
Nought shalt thou hate, and nought deride.
A violent distracting Ghoul,
Forms of the most infuriate madness,—
These may not move thy soul to gladness,
But look within the dark outside,
Nought shalt thou hate, and nought deride.
Thou meetest a common man,
With a delusive show of can;
His acts are petty forgeries of natural greatness,
That show a dreadful lateness
Of this world's mighty impulses; a want of truthful earnestness:
He seems, not does, and in that shows
No true nobility,
A poor ductility
That no proper office knows,
Not even estimation small of human woes.
With a delusive show of can;
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That show a dreadful lateness
Of this world's mighty impulses; a want of truthful earnestness:
He seems, not does, and in that shows
No true nobility,
A poor ductility
That no proper office knows,
Not even estimation small of human woes.
Be not afraid;
His understanding aid
With thy own pure content,
On highest purpose bent.
His understanding aid
With thy own pure content,
On highest purpose bent.
Leave him not lonely,
For that his admiration
Fastens on self and seeming only.
Make a right dedication
Of all thy strength to keep
From swelling, that so ample heap
Of lives abused and virtue given for nought.
And thus it shall appear for all in nature hast thou wrought.
If thou unconsciously perform what's good
Like nature's self thy proper mood.
For that his admiration
Fastens on self and seeming only.
Make a right dedication
Of all thy strength to keep
From swelling, that so ample heap
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And thus it shall appear for all in nature hast thou wrought.
If thou unconsciously perform what's good
Like nature's self thy proper mood.
A life well spent is like a flower
That had bright sunshine its brief hour;
It flourished in pure willingness,
Discovered strongest earnestness,
Was fragrant for each lightest wind,
Was of its own particular kind,
Nor knew a tone of discord sharp;
Breathed alway like a silver harp,
And went to immortality,
A very proper thing to die.
That had bright sunshine its brief hour;
It flourished in pure willingness,
Discovered strongest earnestness,
Was fragrant for each lightest wind,
Was of its own particular kind,
Nor knew a tone of discord sharp;
Breathed alway like a silver harp,
And went to immortality,
A very proper thing to die.
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