The Poetry of Real Life A New Edition, Much Enlarged and Improved. By Henry Ellison |
ON A CRAG, WITH A VAST NICHE-LIKE CAVITY IN ITS FACE. |
The Poetry of Real Life | ||
ON A CRAG, WITH A VAST NICHE-LIKE CAVITY IN ITS FACE.
There is a niche in yon' old rock, which seemsBy Nature left for some great statue; yet
How few are worthy therein to be set,
Of all with which each mortal temple teems!
Man rears up statues to himself, and dreams
That he is great: with pompous epithet
Inscribing them, as Nature were in debt
To him, for lending her his petty themes!
But she is of another mind, and in
Her temple—this fair World—admits but few,
But very few—the Meek, the Good, the True,
Who labour for their fellow-men to win
Th' eternal truths of God: regardless who
May reap the godlike work which they begin!
The Poetry of Real Life | ||