Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul Part 21

My business is not to remake myself, But make the absolute best of what G.o.d made.

--Robert Browning.

For never land long lease of empire won Whose sons sat silent when base deeds were done.

--James Russell Lowell.

He that would free from malice pa.s.s his days Must live obscure and never merit praise.

--John Gay.

Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, Before a thousand peering littlenesses.

--Alfred Tennyson.

The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life, Try to be Shakespeare--leave the rest to fate.

--Robert Browning.

Unblemished let me live, or die unknown; O, grant an honest fame, or grant me none.

--Alexander Pope.

With fame in just proportion envy grows; The man that makes a character makes foes.

--Edward Young.

'Tis not what man does which exalts him, But what man would do.

--Robert Browning.

Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed.

--Robert Browning.

The simple, silent, selfless man Is worth a world of tonguesters.

--Alfred Tennyson.

DUTY

LOYALTY, FAITHFULNESS, CONSCIENCE, ZEAL

ODE TO DUTY

Stern daughter of the voice of G.o.d!

O Duty! if that name thou love Who art a light to guide, a rod To check the erring and reprove; Thou who art victory and law When empty terrors overawe; From vain temptation dost set free; And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

There are who ask not if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth, Where no misgiving is, rely Upon the genial sense of youth; Glad hearts, without reproach or blot, Who do thy work and know it not: Oh! if through confidence misplaced They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power, around them cast.

Serene will be our days, and bright And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security; And they a blissful course may hold Even now, who, not unwisely bold, Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet seek thy firm support according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried, No sport of every random gust, Yet being to myself a guide, Too blindly have reposed my trust; And oft, when in my heart was heard Thy timely mandate, I deferred The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong compunction in me wrought, I supplicate for thy control, But in the quietness of thought.

Me this unchartered freedom tires; I feel the weight of chance desires: My hopes no more must change their name, I long for a repose that ever is the same.

Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear The G.o.dhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power!

I call thee; I myself commend Unto thy guidance from this hour; Oh, let my weakness have an end!

Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice; The confidence of reason give; And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live.

--William Wordsworth.

THE LADDER OF SAINT AUGUSTINE

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

All common things, each day's events, That with the hour begin and end, Our pleasures and our discontents, Are rounds by which we may ascend.

The longing for ign.o.ble things; The strife for triumph more than truth; The hardening of the heart, that brings Irreverence for the dreams of youth;

All thoughts of ill, all evil deeds That have their root in thoughts of ill; Whatever hinders or impedes The action of the n.o.bler will;--

All these must first be trampled down Beneath our feet, if we would gain In the bright fields of fair renown The right of eminent domain.

We have not wings, we cannot soar; But we have feet to scale and climb By slow degrees, by more and more, The cloudy summits of our time.

The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night.

Standing on what too long we bore With shoulders bent and downcast eyes, We may discern--unseen before-- A path to higher destinies,

Nor deem the irrevocable Past As wholly wasted, wholly vain, If, rising on its wrecks, at last To something n.o.bler we attain.