Poems by James Rhoades :: :: University of Virginia Library

Thus far then side by side
The self-same path we've plied—
Our hope, our prospect and horizon one:
Now this new path I choose;
Yet blame not, nor accuse,
But, parting, bid me in God's name go on.

For still by day or night,
Through travail and delight,
With men, or talking with the earth and sea,
I find no written rule,
No form of creed or school,
But something that beats here is more to me.

'Tis bitter so to part;
But falsehood to the heart
Shoots bitterer arrows barb'd with self-disdain:
The beaten ways are sweet,
Worn by a thousand feet—
Not with old foot-prints be my path made plain!

Think not the Eternal Good
Is measur'd by man's rood,
His thoughts scann'd, as the stars are, one by one;
No prophet, saint, or sage
Shall sum up Truth, or gauge
God's purpose ripening while the ages run.

In crocus and in rose
Though the same sunshine glows,
One flower waves crimson, and one trembles gold:
Dost thou alone claim sight?
Is Love less free than Light?
Love's rays in human hearts less manifold?

Nay, yet through scorn and hate
We hail but one thing great,
One power, the universal heart approves:
With Love's free sandals shod
Man's feet may find out God,
Far from the world's great ways and echoing grooves.