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University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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[To plan a wise life, little pains doth ask]

[Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say]

[O life, made up of hints and moods and fine transitions]

[To fight the World's a weary strife]

[Thou Great One! help a poor weak man]

[Lord, make me fit for heav'n!—but nay]

[Speak but one word beyond cavil or doubt!]

[Tease not conscience, rack not wit]

[Take heed, take heed! the petty seed]

[Bad thoughts come and bad thoughts go]

[Heaven's space from Hell doth good from ill divide]

[Foul blotch of sin—disease—disgrace—]

[“Right and Wrong,” “Heaven and Hell,”]

[The pure bright world of childhood round us lies]

[Grieve for thy sin, grieve on; yet bless]

[Sin we have explain'd away]

The Game of Definitions.

[With this I end the day, with this begin]

[This is a pray'r for every mood—]

To an Angel pictured looking through the Sky.

[Almighty Lord, if day by day]

[Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation]

[How argue from effects? Whate'er you do]

[Push me, urge me]

[Ruler above me! grant I may]

[How delightful, could I sin]

[Quibble not on Good and Evil]

[A's life is such, you'd say his best hope lies]

[“Must I believe in a God?” Please yourself in the matter.]

[Irreverent Brute! no churchist now]

[That God is moral may be well averr'd]

[Man's only true delight]

[When I perceive my spirit high and clear]

[One friendly look, out of the vague and vast!]

[Ideal Truth, O Power serene]

[The highest, widest, noblest, thought of thine]

[Is “purgatory”]

[I believe in GOD]

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[Ideal Truth, O Power serene]

Ideal Truth, O Power serene,
The soul's delight, and virgin queen!
Without thee what were human life?
The Nations all, in peace or strife,
But ant-hills? Found in one man's breast,
Lo! there in wondrous germ the best
Of all that human force hath wrought,
The social frame, the realms of thought,
Pleasures eternal and sublime,
A world above the world of time.
Thou hast to mortal vision given
The strength to see almost to Heaven.