 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
The Age Changeful and Worldly
Amidst a changeful, worldly age like ours,How hard to keep a fixed, aspiring mind!
The Present with its sights and sounds o'erpowers,
And makes us to the Past and Future blind.
In vain does History tell, with faithful page,
Of mighty realms by luxury o'erthrown;
Men heed not, in an over-anxious age,
Their ruined capitals with grass o'ergrown.
In vain the prophets of a coming time
Proclaim for earth a bright, millennial day;
But few, responsive to their call sublime,
With a high purpose live, and toil, and pray;
Lord, from our hearts, pluck up each noxious weed,
And, in their places, sow the heavenly seed!
Poem No. 40; c. 26 May 1855
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