Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ I am he;

      For I was blind, but now I see."

      He told the story o'er and o'er;

      It was his full heart's only lore;

      A prophet on the Sabbath day

      Had touched his sightless eyes with clay,

      And made him see who had been blind,

      Their words passed by him like the wind

      Which raves and howls, but cannot shock

      The hundred-fathom-rooted rock.

      Their threats and fury all went wide;

      They could not touch his Hebrew pride.

      Their sneers at Jesus and his band,

      Nameless and homeless in the land,

      Their boasts of Moses and his Lord,

      All could not change him by one word.

      "I know not what this man may be,

      Sinner or saint; but as for me

      One thing I know: that I am he

      Who once was blind, and now I see."

      They were all doctors of renown,

      The great men of a famous town

      With deep brows, wrinkled, broad, and wise

      Beneath their wide phylacteries;

      The wisdom of the East was theirs,

      And honor crowned their silvery hairs.

      The man they jeered, and laughed to scorn

      Was unlearned, poor, and humbly born;

      But he knew better far than they

      What came to him that Sabbath day;

      And what the Christ had done for him

      He knew, and not the Sanhedrim.

      —John Hay.

      ———

      THE OLD STOIC

      Riches I hold in light esteem,

      And Love I laugh to scorn;

      And lust of fame was but a dream,

      That vanished with the morn.

      And, if I pray, the only prayer

      That moves my lips for me

      Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear,

      And give me liberty!"

      Yes, as my swift days near their goal,

      'Tis all that I implore,

      In life and death a chainless soul

      And courage to endure.

      —Emily Brontë.

      ———

      Keep to the right, within and without,

      With stranger and pilgrim and friend;

      Keep to the right and you need have no doubt

      That all will be well in the end.

      Keep to the right in whatever you do,

      Nor claim but your own on the way;

      Keep to the right, and hold on to the true,

      From the morn to the close of life's day!

      

      ———

      FOR A' THAT

      Is there for honest poverty

      That hangs his head, and a' that?

      The coward slave, we pass him by,

      We dare be poor for a' that;

      For a' that and a' that;

      Our toils obscure and a' that;

      The rank is but the guinea-stamp,

      The man's the gowd for a' that.

      What though on hamely fare we dine,

      Wear hodden gray, and a' that:

      Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine,

      A man's a man for a' that;

      For a' that and a' that,

      Their tinsel show, and a' that,

      The honest man, though e'er sae poor,

      Is king o' men, for a' that.

      You see yon birkie ca'd a lord,

      Wha struts and stares, and a' that:

      Though hundreds worship at his word

      He's but a coof for a' that.

      For a' that and a' that,

      His riband, star, and a' that,

      The man of independent mind,

      He looks and laughs at a' that.

      A prince can mak a belted knight,

      A marquis, duke, and a' that;

      But an honest man's aboon his might,

      Guid faith, he mauna fa' that,

      For a' that and a' that,

      Their dignities, and a' that,

      The pith of sense and pride o' worth,

      Are higher ranks than a' that.

      Then let us pray that come it may,

      As come it will, for a' that,

      That sense СКАЧАТЬ