Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ Browning.

      

      ———

      BETTER THAN GOLD

      Better than grandeur, better than gold,

      Than rank and titles a thousandfold,

      Is a healthy body, a mind at ease,

      And simple pleasures that always please;

      A heart that can feel for another's woe,

      That has learned with love's deep fires to glow,

      With sympathy large enough to enfold

      All men as brothers, is better than gold.

      Better than gold is a conscience clear,

      Though toiling for bread in a humble sphere;

      Doubly blest is content and health

      Untried by the lusts and the cares of wealth.

      Lowly living and lofty thought

      Adorn and ennoble the poor man's cot;

      For mind and morals in nature's plan

      Are the genuine tests of the gentleman.

      Better than gold is the sweet repose

      Of the sons of toil when labors close;

      Better than gold is the poor man's sleep

      And the balm that drops on his slumbers deep.

      Bring sleeping draughts to the downy bed,

      Where luxury pillows its aching head;

      The toiler a simple opiate deems

      A shorter route to the land of dreams.

      Better than gold is a thinking mind

      That in the realm of books can find

      A treasure surpassing Australian ore,

      And live with the great and good of yore;

      The sage's lore and the poet's lay;

      The glories of empires passed away;

      The world's great dream will thus unfold

      And yield a pleasure better than gold.

      Better than gold is a peaceful home,

      Where all the fireside characters come,

      The shrine of love, the heaven of life,

      Hallowed by mother or by wife.

      However humble the home may be,

      Or tried with sorrow by heaven's decree,

      The blessings that never were bought or sold

      And center there, are better than gold.

      —Abram J. Ryan.

      ———

      When success exalts thy lot

      God for thy virtue lays a plot.

      —Ralph Waldo Emerson.

      ———

      MAXIMUS

      I hold him great who, for Love's sake,

      Can give with generous, earnest will;

      Yet he who takes for Love's sweet sake

      I think I hold more generous still.

      I bow before the noble mind

      That freely some great wrong forgives;

      Yet nobler is the one forgiven,

      Who bears that burden well and lives.

      It may be hard to gain, and still

      To keep a lowly, steadfast heart;

      Yet he who loses has to fill

      A harder and a truer part.

      Glorious it is to wear the crown

      Of a deserved and pure success;

      He who knows how to fail has won

      A crown whose luster is not less.

      Great may he be who can command

      And rule with just and tender sway;

      Yet is Diviner wisdom taught

      Better by him who can obey.

      Blessed are those who die for God,

      And earn the martyr's crown of light;

      Yet he who lives for God may be

      A greater conqueror in his sight.

      —Adelaide Anne Procter.

      ———

      'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great:

      Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,

      Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.

      Who noble ends by noble means obtains,

      Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains;

      Like good Aurelius, let him reign, or bleed

      Like Socrates—that man is great indeed.

      One self-approving hour whole years outweighs

      Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;

      And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels,

      Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.

      —Alexander Pope.

      ———

      Though world on world in myriad myriads roll

      Round us, each with different powers,

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