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University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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[To plan a wise life, little pains doth ask]

[Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say]

[O life, made up of hints and moods and fine transitions]

[To fight the World's a weary strife]

[Thou Great One! help a poor weak man]

[Lord, make me fit for heav'n!—but nay]

[Speak but one word beyond cavil or doubt!]

[Tease not conscience, rack not wit]

[Take heed, take heed! the petty seed]

[Bad thoughts come and bad thoughts go]

[Heaven's space from Hell doth good from ill divide]

[Foul blotch of sin—disease—disgrace—]

[“Right and Wrong,” “Heaven and Hell,”]

[The pure bright world of childhood round us lies]

[Grieve for thy sin, grieve on; yet bless]

[Sin we have explain'd away]

The Game of Definitions.

[With this I end the day, with this begin]

[This is a pray'r for every mood—]

To an Angel pictured looking through the Sky.

[Almighty Lord, if day by day]

[Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation]

[How argue from effects? Whate'er you do]

[Push me, urge me]

[Ruler above me! grant I may]

[How delightful, could I sin]

[Quibble not on Good and Evil]

[A's life is such, you'd say his best hope lies]

[“Must I believe in a God?” Please yourself in the matter.]

[Irreverent Brute! no churchist now]

[That God is moral may be well averr'd]

[Man's only true delight]

[When I perceive my spirit high and clear]

[One friendly look, out of the vague and vast!]

[Ideal Truth, O Power serene]

[The highest, widest, noblest, thought of thine]

[Is “purgatory”]

[I believe in GOD]

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[Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say]

Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say
No lies at all, for just one single day.
Would houses crumble into heaps of sand,
Fields wither, sky fall, ocean whelm the land?