Factum Factorum | ||
26
FACTS—
Do You Know That—
Deep in each artist's soul some picture liesThat he will never paint for mortal eyes?
And every author in his heart doth hold
Some sad, sweet tale that he will leave untold?
Besides That—
There are poems unwritten and songs unsungSweeter than any that ever was heard;
Poems that will wait for an angel's tongue,
Songs that wait for a paradise bird.
And Then—
I don't believe that a song is sungBut the singer's heart sings sweeter.
I don't believe a rhyme can be rung
But the thought surpasses the meter.
I don't believe that a painter's stroke
Can draw what the heart to conscience spoke.
But My Friends—
The kind of man for you and meFaces the world unflinchingly
And smites, as long as wrong resists,
With knuckled faith and force-like fists.
He lives the life he is preaching of,
And loves where most there is need of love.
And feeling still, with a faith half clad,
That the bad are as good as the good are bad,
He strikes right out for the right, and he
Is the kind of a man for you and me.
If you can't take a stand for right,
And hold your own in the thickest fight,
And in that way prevent human strife,
Stay off the frontier of public life!
Factum Factorum | ||