Yet when could truth come whole and pure
From hearts that inly writhe with wrong?
‘T is not the calm and peaceful breast
That sees or reads the problem true;
They only know, on whom ‘t has prest
Too hard to hope to solve it too.
Our ills are worse than at their ease
These blameless happy souls suspect,
They only study the disease,
Alas, who live not to detect.
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It fortifies my soul to know
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.
To spend uncounted years of pain,
In working out in heart and brainThe problem of our being here;To gather facts from far and near,Upon the mind to hold them clear,And, knowing more may yet appear,Unto one’s latest breath to fearThe premature result to draw–Is this the object, end and law,And purpose of our being here?
Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane,
With zephyr mild and balmy rainThe summer comes serenly on;Earth, air, and sun and skies combineTo promise all that’s kind and fair: –But thou, O human heart of mine,Be still, contain thyself, and bear.December days were brief and chill,The winds of March were wild and drear,And, nearing and receding still,Spring never would, we thought, be…
Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
And where the land she travels from? Away,Far, far behind, is all that they can say.On sunny noons upon the deck’s smooth face,Link’d arm in arm, how pleasant here to pace;Or, o’er the stern reclining, watch belowThe foaming wake far widening as we go.On stormy nights when wild north-westers rave,How proud a thing to fight…
Yet to the wondrous St. Peter’s, and yet to the solemn Rotunda,
Yet may we go, and recline, while a whole mighty world seems above us,Gathered and fixed to all time into one roofing supreme;Yet may we, thinking on these things, exclude what is meaner around us;Yet, at the worst of the worst, books and a chamber remain;Yet may we think, and forget, and possess our souls…
What we, when face to face we see
John tells us, doth not yet appear;Ah! did he tell what we are here!A mind for thoughts to pass into,A heart for loves to travel through,Five senses to detect things near,Is this the whole that we are here?Rules baffle instincts–instinct rules,Wise men are bad–and good are fools,Facts evil–wishes vain appear,We cannot go, why are we…