 | The Last Ballad and Other Poems |  |
152
THE OUTCAST
Soul, be your own
Pleasance and mart,
A land unknown,
A state apart.
Pleasance and mart,
A land unknown,
A state apart.
Scowl, and be rude
Should love entice;
Call gratitude
The costliest vice.
Should love entice;
Call gratitude
The costliest vice.
Deride the ill
By fortune sent;
Be scornful still
If foes repent.
By fortune sent;
Be scornful still
If foes repent.
153
When curse and stone
Are hissed and hurled,
Aloof, alone
Disdain the world.
Are hissed and hurled,
Aloof, alone
Disdain the world.
Soul, disregard
The bad, the good;
Be haughty, hard,
Misunderstood.
The bad, the good;
Be haughty, hard,
Misunderstood.
Be neutral; spare
No humblest lie,
And overbear
Authority.
No humblest lie,
And overbear
Authority.
Laugh wisdom down;
Abandon fate;
Shame the renown
Of all the great.
Abandon fate;
154
Of all the great.
Dethrone the past;
Deed, vision—naught
Avails at last
Save your own thought.
Deed, vision—naught
Avails at last
Save your own thought.
Though on all hands
The powers unsheathe
Their lightning-brands
And from beneath,
The powers unsheathe
Their lightning-brands
And from beneath,
And from above
One curse be hurled
With scorn, with love
Affront the world.
One curse be hurled
With scorn, with love
Affront the world.
| The Last Ballad and Other Poems | |