 | The poetical works of John Townsend Trowbridge |  |
OUT IN THE WORLD
The inevitable day
Of their parting sweetly rose:
Day of dread to them that stay,
Day of hope to him who goes.
Of their parting sweetly rose:
Day of dread to them that stay,
Day of hope to him who goes.
When the rumbling coach-and-four
Round the shady porch appears,
They dismiss him from the door
With their blessings and their tears.
Round the shady porch appears,
They dismiss him from the door
With their blessings and their tears.
348
Something bright his eyelash hides:
On the coach's topmost seat
Bravely smiling forth he rides,
In the Maytime fresh and sweet.
On the coach's topmost seat
Bravely smiling forth he rides,
In the Maytime fresh and sweet.
Joy with him has fled away;
And a strange funereal gloom
Falls upon the vacant day,
Fills his empty, silent room.
And a strange funereal gloom
Falls upon the vacant day,
Fills his empty, silent room.
Youth is thoughtless, not unkind:
Ah, dear boy, if he but knew
What deep solace they will find
In his letters, all too few!
Ah, dear boy, if he but knew
What deep solace they will find
In his letters, all too few!
They await each hour that brings
Tidings of his fair career,
With what anxious questionings,
With what faith, and with what fear!
Tidings of his fair career,
With what anxious questionings,
With what faith, and with what fear!
Faith, that ever in the sight
Of protecting seraphim
He will follow truth and right,
Letting fortune follow him.
Of protecting seraphim
He will follow truth and right,
Letting fortune follow him.
Will he, in a world where wrong
Sways the many, right the few,
Tread with instincts pure and strong,
Shun the false and choose the true?
Sways the many, right the few,
Tread with instincts pure and strong,
Shun the false and choose the true?
He the while, with hope elate,
As if life were always May,
Journeys onward, to what fate
He divines no more than they.
As if life were always May,
Journeys onward, to what fate
He divines no more than they.
Is it health and happiness?
Is it soul-consuming care?
Is it honor and success?
Is it failure and despair?
Is it soul-consuming care?
Is it honor and success?
Is it failure and despair?
349
Enterprise and wit and skill,
Haughty, tender, brave and just,
Shall his future not fulfil
His bright promise, their great trust?
Haughty, tender, brave and just,
Shall his future not fulfil
His bright promise, their great trust?
Vain the question: well, may be,
That beyond the azure brim
Of each day no man can see
What the wide world holds for him.
That beyond the azure brim
Of each day no man can see
What the wide world holds for him.
Learn this truth and leave the rest:
Each, whatever his estate,
In his own unconscious breast
Bears the talisman of fate.
Each, whatever his estate,
In his own unconscious breast
Bears the talisman of fate.
Who has strength, with self-control,
Love and faith and rectitude,
Fortune fails not, for his soul
Is the lodestar of all good.
Love and faith and rectitude,
Fortune fails not, for his soul
Is the lodestar of all good.
| The poetical works of John Townsend Trowbridge | |