In working out in heart and brain
The 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 fear
The premature result to draw–
Is this the object, end and law,
And purpose of our being here?
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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.
‘Old things need not be therefore true,’
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…
Eastward, or Northward, or West? I wander and ask as I wander;
Whitherward hasten to seek her? Ye daughters of Italy, tell me,Graceful and tender and dark, is she consorting with you?Thou that out-climbest the torrent, that tendest thy goats to the summit,Call to me, child of the Alp, has she been seen on the heights?Italy, farewell I bid thee! for whither she leads me, I follow.Farewell…
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…
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…
As ships, becalm’d at eve, that lay
Two towers of sail at dawn of dayAre scarce long leagues apart descried;When fell the night, upsprung the breeze,And all the darkling hours they plied,Nor dreamt but each the self-same seasBy each was cleaving, side by side:E’en so–but why the tale revealOf those whom, year by year unchang’d,Brief absence join’d anew, to feel,Astounded, soul from…