Ballads for the Times (Now first collected,) Geraldine, A Modern Pyramid, Bartenus, A Thousand Lines, and other poems. By Martin F. Tupper. A new Edition, enlarged and revised |
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 | Ballads for the Times |  |
EQUALITY.
Pining Envy's feeble hope,
Shipwreck's last despairing rope,
Idle wish from Satan sent,
Ruffian prize of Discontent,
Dull debasing sordid thing
Crushing down each generous spring,
Stern Procrustes' iron bed
To rack the feet or lop the head,—
Where in all life's social book
Shall your purblind statesman look,
Where,—Equality, to find
A sillier lie to cheat mankind?
Shipwreck's last despairing rope,
Idle wish from Satan sent,
Ruffian prize of Discontent,
Dull debasing sordid thing
Crushing down each generous spring,
Stern Procrustes' iron bed
To rack the feet or lop the head,—
Where in all life's social book
Shall your purblind statesman look,
Where,—Equality, to find
A sillier lie to cheat mankind?
Tell the truth, yea tell it out,
Nature, without fear or doubt;
Tell it out that never yet
Have two utter equals met:
Leaves and fruits on every tree,
Fowls and fish of air and sea,
Stars on high with all their host,
Pebbles from a kingdom's coast;
Search them all, some difference still
Clings to each for good or ill;
Search the world—all worlds—around,
Perfect twins were never found;
Babes of various realm and race,
Men of every age and place,
Gifts of God, or wise denials,
Pleasures, sorrows, triumphs, trials,
All things differ everywhere,—
Never two can start quite fair,—
Never two could keep the start
In soul or body, mind or heart,
While the shortest winter's day
To its morrow gloom'd away!
Nature, without fear or doubt;
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Have two utter equals met:
Leaves and fruits on every tree,
Fowls and fish of air and sea,
Stars on high with all their host,
Pebbles from a kingdom's coast;
Search them all, some difference still
Clings to each for good or ill;
Search the world—all worlds—around,
Perfect twins were never found;
Babes of various realm and race,
Men of every age and place,
Gifts of God, or wise denials,
Pleasures, sorrows, triumphs, trials,
All things differ everywhere,—
Never two can start quite fair,—
Never two could keep the start
In soul or body, mind or heart,
While the shortest winter's day
To its morrow gloom'd away!
Would then Vanity, and Sloth,
And Disappointment, scorning both,
And Pride and Meanness, hand in hand,
With Crime and low Ambition stand
To scheme and plot a wholesome plan
Utterly to ruin Man,—
Then should they level love and hate,
And grind to atoms all things great,
Corrupt all good, befoul all fair,
Make gladness weep, and hope despair,
And, impotent to raise the dead,
Kill the living in their stead,
By working out the poison'd lie
Your sages call Equality.
And Disappointment, scorning both,
And Pride and Meanness, hand in hand,
With Crime and low Ambition stand
To scheme and plot a wholesome plan
Utterly to ruin Man,—
Then should they level love and hate,
And grind to atoms all things great,
Corrupt all good, befoul all fair,
Make gladness weep, and hope despair,
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Kill the living in their stead,
By working out the poison'd lie
Your sages call Equality.
No! thou phantom false and fair,
Rainbow-castle in the air,
Fit enough for fays or elves,
But not for mortals like ourselves,
In this hive of human kind
Where some can see, and some are blind,
Where some will work though others play,
And many swear while many pray,
Where disease and age at length
Must bend and bow to manhood's strength,
Where every one of God's good gifts
The favour'd from his fellow lifts,—
Equal!—equal?—tush: the word
In truer letters spells absurd.
Rainbow-castle in the air,
Fit enough for fays or elves,
But not for mortals like ourselves,
In this hive of human kind
Where some can see, and some are blind,
Where some will work though others play,
And many swear while many pray,
Where disease and age at length
Must bend and bow to manhood's strength,
Where every one of God's good gifts
The favour'd from his fellow lifts,—
Equal!—equal?—tush: the word
In truer letters spells absurd.
Equal? there is One alone
Reigns Coequal on His throne;
Nor can any creature dare
With such Essence to compare.
All things else through change and chance,
And time and place and circumstance,
And partial Providence most just,
And man's ‘I will,’ and God's ‘you must,’—
All things, differing each from each,
Vainly still their lesson teach,
If Equality be thus
Possible or wise for us,
Where with various means and powers
In a trial-world like ours
We must work as best we may,
And leave it to The Judgment Day
To declare how ill or well
Earth's advantages may tell:
Then, shall equal meed be given
By the justice of High Heaven:
Then, shall compensation true
Set us all in places new:
And,—how many counted first
There shall stand the worst accurst!
And,—how many here so poor,
Lazarus laid at Dives' door,
There, instead of last and least,
First shall sit at Life's great feast!
Reigns Coequal on His throne;
Nor can any creature dare
With such Essence to compare.
All things else through change and chance,
And time and place and circumstance,
And partial Providence most just,
And man's ‘I will,’ and God's ‘you must,’—
All things, differing each from each,
Vainly still their lesson teach,
If Equality be thus
Possible or wise for us,
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In a trial-world like ours
We must work as best we may,
And leave it to The Judgment Day
To declare how ill or well
Earth's advantages may tell:
Then, shall equal meed be given
By the justice of High Heaven:
Then, shall compensation true
Set us all in places new:
And,—how many counted first
There shall stand the worst accurst!
And,—how many here so poor,
Lazarus laid at Dives' door,
There, instead of last and least,
First shall sit at Life's great feast!
| Ballads for the Times | |