From lonely hut and busy town,The valley through, the mountain down,What was it ye went out to see,Ye silly folk Galilee?The reed that in the wind doth shake?The weed that washes in the lake?The reeds that waver, the weeds that float?A young man preaching in a boat.What was it ye went out to hearBy sea…
In controversial foul impurenessThe peace that is thy light to theeQuench not: in faith and inner surenessPossess thy soul and let it be.No violence–perverse–persistent–What cannot be can bring to be;No zeal what is make more existent,And strife but blinds the eyes that see.What though in blood their souls embruing,The great, the good and wise they…
Ah! still awhile the old thought retain,And yet consider it again!The souls of now two thousand yearsHave laid up here their toils and tears,And all the earnings of their pain,–Ah, yet consider it again!We! what do we see? each a spaceOf some few yards before his face;Does that the whole wide plan explain?Ah, yet consider…
And wished myself so oftenWell away from you and town–Are the people walking quietlyAnd steady on their feet,Cabs and omnibuses plyingJust as usual in the street?Do the houses look as uprightAs of old they used to be,And does nothing seem affectedBy the pitching of the sea?Through the Green Park iron railingsDo the quick pedestrians pass?Are…
Of our strange being’s parti-coloured web.How rich the universe! ‘Tis a vein of oreEmerging now and then on Earth’s rude breast,But flowing full below. Like islands setAt distant intervals on Ocean’s face,We see it on our course; but in the depthsThe mystic colonnade unbroken keepsIts faithful way, invisible but sure.Oh, if it be so, wherefore…
Yet when could truth come whole and pureFrom hearts that inly writhe with wrong?‘T is not the calm and peaceful breastThat sees or reads the problem true;They only know, on whom ‘t has prestToo hard to hope to solve it too.Our ills are worse than at their easeThese blameless happy souls suspect,They only study the…
That, howsoe’er I stray and range,Whate’er I do, Thou dost not change.I steadier step when I recallThat, if I slip, Thou dost not fall.
Murmuring once, dimpling, pellucid, limpid, abundant,Deepening now, widening, swelling, a lordly river.Through woodlands steering, with branches waving above thee,Through the meadows sinuous, wandering irriguous;Towns, hamlets leaving, towns by thee, bridges across thee,Pass to palace garden, pass to cities populous.Murmuring once, dimpling, ’mid woodlands wandering idly,Now with mighty vessels loaded, a mighty river.Pass to the great…
And lay you down and take your rest;And when you wake, to work again,The wind it blows, the vessel goes,And where and whither, no one knows.‘Twill all be well: no need of care;Though how it will, and when, and where,We cannot see, and can’t declare.In spite of dreams, in spite of thought,‘Tis not in vain,…
Golden, odoriferous, perfume exhaling about them,Orbs in a dark umbrage luminous and radiant;To the palate grateful, more luscious were not in Eden,Or in that fabled garden of Alcinoüs;Out of a dark umbrage sounds also musical issued,Birds their sweet transports uttering in melodyThrushes clear piping, wood-pigeons cooing, arousingLoudly the nightingale, loudly the sylvan echoes;Waters transpicuous flowed…
