Records and Other Poems By the late Robert Leighton |
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THE RAIN FALLS EQUALLY. |
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 | Records and Other Poems |  |
179
THE RAIN FALLS EQUALLY.
The rain falls on the unjust and the just,
And worldly fortune comes alike to both.
What heart is here for Justice? Let it trust
All to the inward growth.
And worldly fortune comes alike to both.
What heart is here for Justice? Let it trust
All to the inward growth.
Justice rewards itself; and if its deeds
Seem only to bring poverty and grief,
These also are the rain of Heaven, that feeds
The plant to higher leaf.
Seem only to bring poverty and grief,
These also are the rain of Heaven, that feeds
The plant to higher leaf.
If plants, themselves corrupt, get plenteous rain,
'Tis not to bless them, but to make them worse:
And who has seen Injustice truly gain?
Its seeming gain a curse.
'Tis not to bless them, but to make them worse:
And who has seen Injustice truly gain?
Its seeming gain a curse.
'Tis not in nature that the prize of wrong
Can bless the gainer. They that foully win,
Destroy the good of winning, yet prolong
The multiplying sin.
Can bless the gainer. They that foully win,
Destroy the good of winning, yet prolong
The multiplying sin.
For spirit has its chemistry. The gain
That comes of wrong transmutes itself to loss;
And, dreaming it has struck a golden vein,
Wakens to find it dross.
That comes of wrong transmutes itself to loss;
And, dreaming it has struck a golden vein,
Wakens to find it dross.
So, if the rain does fall alike on all,
It does not work in all a like result.
We cannot judge the blessing from the fall,
Its action so occult.
It does not work in all a like result.
We cannot judge the blessing from the fall,
Its action so occult.
| Records and Other Poems | |