 | Words by the Wayside |  |
54
Heavens
The heavens whereon our hopes are set,
What are they? beauty, pleasure, pride,
Ambition—all that never yet
Hath heart of man beatified:
What are they? beauty, pleasure, pride,
Ambition—all that never yet
Hath heart of man beatified:
Like wanderers in a midnight glen,
Whose every glow-worm is a star,
Till disillusion dawns, and then
Earthy and of the earth they are.
Whose every glow-worm is a star,
Till disillusion dawns, and then
Earthy and of the earth they are.
Who spend life's treasure to be filled
With that which is not but in name;
Who waste the spirit's wealth to build
Some folly-tower of human fame;
With that which is not but in name;
Who waste the spirit's wealth to build
Some folly-tower of human fame;
Or who to loftier ends aspire,
Yet aim but at the victor's crown—
One is the heaven they take for hire,
The hollow heaven of self-renown.
Yet aim but at the victor's crown—
One is the heaven they take for hire,
The hollow heaven of self-renown.
Who, steeped in bodily delight,
Forsake clear Honour's crystal well,
Or, trafficking in truth and right,
Ply commerce with the courts of hell,
Forsake clear Honour's crystal well,
Or, trafficking in truth and right,
Ply commerce with the courts of hell,
Voluptuous heart, and scheming bead,
That shape a heaven of craft or lust—
The dome they build is for the dead,
And pillared upon crumbling dust.
That shape a heaven of craft or lust—
The dome they build is for the dead,
And pillared upon crumbling dust.
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Yet some there be by instinct sure
Led onward, of sublimer sort,
To seek whate'er is just and pure
And lovely and of good report;
Led onward, of sublimer sort,
To seek whate'er is just and pure
And lovely and of good report;
Whose souls amid all human strife
Like tranquil waters glide and shine—
The lapse of an unsullied life
Drawn daily nearer the Divine:
Like tranquil waters glide and shine—
The lapse of an unsullied life
Drawn daily nearer the Divine:
For these, earth's discord to atone,
Death's terror quell before they die,
That inward heaven which is their own,
The heaven of heart-simplicity.
Death's terror quell before they die,
That inward heaven which is their own,
The heaven of heart-simplicity.
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