 | The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith |  |
[If I had got the cup]
“Charity vaunteth not itself.”—1 Cor. xiii. 4.
If I had got the cup,
Which some have had to drain,
Unto the brim filled up
With pleasure or with pain,
I might have done as badly
As they who did the worst;
I might have plunged as madly
Into evil from the first.
Which some have had to drain,
Unto the brim filled up
With pleasure or with pain,
I might have done as badly
As they who did the worst;
I might have plunged as madly
Into evil from the first.
Who knows himself, and yet
Will say he could not be
Entangled in the net
Of opportunity?
Or that the storm, assailing
The virtue he achieves,
Would smite it unavailing,
And only rob the leaves?
Will say he could not be
Entangled in the net
Of opportunity?
Or that the storm, assailing
The virtue he achieves,
Would smite it unavailing,
And only rob the leaves?
The ill that one has wrought
Is mostly what is known,
But not the fight he fought,
Or grief he may have shown.
And none are evil wholly,
Or evil all at once;
Lord, keep me meek and lowly,
I wot not what may chance.
Is mostly what is known,
But not the fight he fought,
Or grief he may have shown.
And none are evil wholly,
Or evil all at once;
Lord, keep me meek and lowly,
I wot not what may chance.
| The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith | |