Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ and faithful, enter in!"

      —John Greenleaf Whittier.

      ———

      THE CHARGE

      They outtalked thee, hissed thee, tore thee?

      Better men fared thus before thee;

      Fired their ringing shot and pass'd,

      Hotly charged—and sank at last.

      Charge once more, then, and be dumb!

      Let the victors, when they come,

      When the forts of folly fall,

      Find thy body by the wall!

      —Matthew Arnold.

      

      ———

      THE REFORMER

      Before the monstrous wrong he sets him down—

      One man against a stone-walled city of sin.

      For centuries those walls have been abuilding;

      Smooth porphyry, they slope and coldly glass

      The flying storm and wheeling sun. No chink,

      No crevice, lets the thinnest arrow in.

      He fights alone, and from the cloudy ramparts

      A thousand evil faces gibe and jeer him.

      Let him lie down and die: what is the right,

      And where is justice, in a world like this?

      But by and by earth shakes herself, impatient;

      And down, in one great roar of ruin, crash

      Watch-tower and citadel and battlements.

      When the red dust has cleared, the lonely soldier

      Stands with strange thoughts beneath the friendly stars.

      —Edward Rowland Sill.

      ———

      LIFE AND DEATH

      So he died for his faith. That is fine—

      More than most of us do.

      But, say, can you add to that line

      That he lived for it, too?

      In his death he bore witness at last

      As a martyr to truth.

      Did his life do the same in the past

      From the days of his youth?

      It is easy to die. Men have died

      For a wish or a whim—

      From bravado or passion or pride.

      Was it harder for him?

      But to live—every day to live out

      All the truth that he dreamt,

      While his friends met his conduct with doubt

      And the world with contempt.

      Was it thus that he plodded ahead,

      Never turning aside?

      Then we'll talk of the life that he lived.

      Never mind how he died.

      —Ernest Crosby.

      ———

      THE RED PLANET MARS

      The star of the unconquered will,

      He rises in my breast,

      Serene, and resolute, and still,

      And calm, and self-possessed.

      And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,

      That readest this brief psalm,

      As one by one thy hopes depart,

      Be resolute and calm.

      Oh, fear not in a world like this,

      And thou shalt know erelong—

      Know how sublime a thing it is

      To suffer and be strong.

      —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

      ———

      THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE

      Not they alone who from the bitter strife

      Came forth victorious, yielding willingly

      That which they deem most precious, even life,

      Content to suffer all things, Christ, for Thee;

      Not they alone whose feet so firmly trod

      The pathway ending in rack, sword and flame,

      Foreseeing death, yet faithful to their Lord,

      Enduring for His sake the pain and shame;

      Not they alone have won the martyr's palm,

      Not only from their life proceeds the eternal psalm.

      For earth hath martyrs now, a saintly throng;

      Each day unnoticed do we pass them by;

      'Mid busy crowds they calmly move along,

      Bearing a hidden cross, how patiently!

      Not theirs the sudden anguish, swift and keen,

      Their hearts are worn and wasted with small cares,

      With daily griefs and thrusts from foes unseen;

      Troubles and trials that take them unawares;

      Theirs is СКАЧАТЬ