Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul Part 13

Soon we depart; Mortals are all; A breath, then the pall; A flash on the dark-- All's done--stiff and stark.

No time for a lie; The truth, and then die.

Hide not thy heart!

Forth with thy thought!

Soon 'twill be naught, And thou in thy tomb.

Now is air, now is room.

Down with false shame; Reck not of fame; Dread not man's spite; Quench not thy light.

This be thy creed, This be thy deed: "Hide not thy heart!"

If G.o.d is, he made Suns.h.i.+ne and shade, Heaven and h.e.l.l; This we know well.

Dost thou believe?

Do not deceive; Scorn not thy faith-- If 'tis a wraith Soon it will fly.

Thou who must die, Hide not thy heart!

This is my creed, This be my deed: Faith, or a doubt, I shall speak out-- And hide not my heart.

--Richard Watson Gilder.

A GENTLEMAN

(Psa. XV.)

'Tis he whose every thought and deed By rule of virtue moves; Whose generous tongue disdains to speak The thing his heart disproves.

Who never did a slander forge His neighbor's fame to wound; Nor hearken to a false report By malice whispered round.

Who vice in all its pomp and power Can treat with just neglect; And piety, though clothed in rags, Religiously respect.

Who to his plighted word of truth Has ever firmly stood; And, though he promised to his loss, Still makes his promise good.

Whose soul in usury disdains His treasure to employ; Whom no reward can ever bribe The guiltless to destroy.

I hold it as a changeless law, From which no soul can sway or swerve, We have that in us which will draw Whate'er we need or most deserve.

BE TRUE THYSELF

Thou must be true thyself If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow if thou Another's soul wouldst reach.

It needs the overflow of heart To give the lips full speech.

Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and n.o.ble creed.

--Horatius Bonar.

Keep pure thy soul!

Then shalt thou take the whole Of delight; Then, without a pang, Thine shall be all of beauty whereof the poet sang-- The perfume and the pageant, the melody, the mirth, Of the golden day and the starry night; Of heaven and of earth.

Oh, keep pure thy soul!

--Richard Watson Gilder.

Somebody did a golden deed; Somebody proved a friend in need; Somebody sang a beautiful song; Somebody smiled the whole daylong; Somebody thought, "'Tis sweet to live."

Somebody said, "I'm glad to give"; Somebody fought a valiant fight; Somebody lived to s.h.i.+eld the right; Was it you?

Then draw we nearer, day by day, Each to his brethren, all to G.o.d; Let the world take us as she may, We must not change our road; Not wondering, though in grief, to find The martyr's foe still keep her mind; But fixed to hold Love's banner fast, And by submission win at last.

--John Keble.

Knowing, what all experience serves to show, No mud can soil us but the mud we throw.

--James Russell Lowell.

Be no imitator; freshly act thy part; Through this world be thou an independent ranger; Better is the faith that springeth from thy heart Than a better faith belonging to a stranger.

--From the Persian.

None but one can harm you, None but yourself who are your greatest foe, He that respects himself is safe from others, He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

And some innative weakness there must be In him that condescends to victory Such as the _present_ gives, and cannot wait-- Safe in himself as in a fate.

--James Russell Lowell.

To be the thing we seem, To do the thing we deem Enjoined by duty; To walk in faith, nor dream Of questioning G.o.d's scheme Of truth and beauty.

To live by law, acting the law we live by without fear, And, because right is right, to follow right, Were wisdom, in the scorn of consequence.

--Alfred Tennyson.

Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply: "'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Whatever you are--be that; Whatever you say--be true; Straightforwardly act-- Be honest--in fact Be n.o.body else but you.