Poems of James Russell Lowell Part 11

Are we free from stubborn will, From low hate and malice small, From opinion's tyrant thrall?

Are none of us our own slaves still?

IV.

Are we free to speak our thought, To be happy, and be poor, Free to enter Heaven's door, To live and labor as we ought?

V.

Are we then made free at last From the fear of what men say, Free to reverence To-day, Free from the slavery of the Past?

VI.

Our fathers fought for liberty, They struggled long and well, History of their deeds can tell-- But _ourselves_ must set us free.

SPHINX.

I.

Why mourn we for the golden prime When our young souls _were_ kingly, strong, and true?

The soul is greater than all time, It changes not, but yet is ever new.

II.

But that the soul _is_ n.o.ble, we Could never know what n.o.bleness had been; Be what ye dream! and earth shall see A greater greatness than she e'er hath seen.

III.

The flower pines not to be fair, It never asketh to be sweet and dear, But gives itself to sun and air, And so is fresh and full from year to year.

IV.

Nothing in Nature weeps its lot, Nothing, save man, abides in memory, Forgetful that the Past is what Ourselves may choose the coming time to be.

V.

All things are circular; the Past Was given us to make the Future great; And the void Future shall at last Be the strong rudder of an after fate.

VI.

We sit beside the Sphinx of Life, We gaze into its void, unanswering eyes, And spend ourselves in idle strife To read the riddle of their mysteries.

VII.

Arise! be earnest and be strong!

The Sphinx's eyes shall suddenly grow clear, And speak as plain to thee ere long, As the dear maiden's who holds thee most dear.

VIII.

The meaning of all things in _us_-- Yea, in the lives we give our souls--doth lie; Make, then, their meaning glorious By such a life as need not fear to die!

IX.

There is no heart-beat in the day, Which bears a record of the smallest deed, But holds within its faith alway That which in doubt we vainly strive to read.

X.

One seed contains another seed, And that a third, and so for evermore; And promise of as great a deed Lies folded in the deed that went before.

XI.

So ask not fitting s.p.a.ce or time, Yet could not dream of things which could not be; Each day shall make the next sublime, And Time be swallowed in Eternity.

XII.

G.o.d bless the Present! it is ALL ; It has been Future, and it shall be Past; Awake and live! thy strength recall, And in one trinity unite them fast.

XIII.

Action and Life--lo! here the key Of all on earth that seemeth dark and wrong; Win this--and, with it, freely ye May enter that bright realm for which ye long.

XIV.

Then all these bitter questionings Shall with a full and blessed answer meet; Past worlds, whereof the Poet sings, Shall be the earth beneath his snow-white fleet.

"GOE, LITTLE BOOKE!"