 | From Sunset Ridge |  |
120
MEDITATION II
Sublime and poor the bards of old
Their heavenly message heard and told,
Sequestered from the human crowd,
Who heed but warnings large and loud.
Their heavenly message heard and told,
Sequestered from the human crowd,
Who heed but warnings large and loud.
Nor velvet robe the prophet had,
In homely garments bound and clad;
Nor dainty table gave them seat
Who with the gods might take their meat.
In homely garments bound and clad;
Nor dainty table gave them seat
Who with the gods might take their meat.
But Jesus poorest was of all;
Tended with oxen in the stall;
From narrow bounds of household rule
Devising his immortal school;
While mother's toil and father's thrift
His weighty problems did uplift;
And this one's work, and that one's wine,
Were moulded into types divine.
The needy fishers were his friends,
Unlearned companions in his ends;
And stripe, and shame, and felon tree
Aided his deathless victory.
So, Soul, be steadfast in thy lot,
In marble shade or rustic cot:
Permit the wealth the Fates bestow,
But in its void no pining know.
Tended with oxen in the stall;
From narrow bounds of household rule
Devising his immortal school;
While mother's toil and father's thrift
His weighty problems did uplift;
And this one's work, and that one's wine,
Were moulded into types divine.
The needy fishers were his friends,
Unlearned companions in his ends;
And stripe, and shame, and felon tree
Aided his deathless victory.
121
In marble shade or rustic cot:
Permit the wealth the Fates bestow,
But in its void no pining know.
The richest human treasury,
The mine of thought, to all is free.
Let Pleasure mix her shallow drink
While twines Desert the iron link
Whose firmness, over time and space,
Transmits the virtue of the race.
Though fortunes fail, and prospects frown,
May Duty keep her matchless crown,
Nor Desolation bid depart
The glories of a guileless heart.
The mine of thought, to all is free.
Let Pleasure mix her shallow drink
While twines Desert the iron link
Whose firmness, over time and space,
Transmits the virtue of the race.
Though fortunes fail, and prospects frown,
May Duty keep her matchless crown,
Nor Desolation bid depart
The glories of a guileless heart.
| From Sunset Ridge | |