This work, sublime in truth revealing trials Enlightens your way, O sojourn heart Which, too long groaning, you have sought the while And knew not, pierced through with scorching darts Of cruel despite. The back and not the front You first pursued and turned away the thought Which, rightly meek, could otherwise wax blunt The plaint of sorrow, though not falsely wrought. Such Vale you pass, and must, which set before Is flood with tears like yours for such remiss Unkindly given, patiently now born- Both cheeks for smiting, doubly felt love's kiss. Forbear the world’s affront in wrath uncouth To bless your soul with love, and love in truth.
Miners do not bemoan their lot or odds Toiling amidst the mountains for the boon Of rare and costly things, nor curse the gods That one is later rich, one richer soon. Attentiveness they hold who sooner reap The treasure that's around them secret sown And into every crevice careful peek To pluck what hasty others pass unknown. Nor is life slack to proffer all the glee Of finding under foot the stainless wealth If only first to humbly, inward see What beauty of the soul slips by in stealth. The fool to Fortune's ways too tempted clings Though Memory retains the sacred things.
What is the plowman's good who does not know To break the fallow is a noble work And what is called the helper who would sow For early rains and yet the labor shirks? All seasons come in their appointed time Accounting faithfully intrinsic ends And turn together, folding as this rhyme To pass one into each toward that they tend. So one's the heart, all dispositions move Proportionate to their respective toil As one's the year, all seasons constant prove To blend experience for richer soil. Then discipline grabs hold onto the tares For ripened truth, joy harvesting the tears.
The carpenters, with tape and steady rule Check their work, all purposes befitting... Discerning every plane, they make it true To need and art, nothing good omitting. Time, space, and material they well acquaint To suit what in idea they have known And do not think impatiently to joint The aims they love and hope to outward show. Determined from at first their thoughts aspire With upright means to prove the inward form In outward style, contracting the attire To fit, too transient, what their heart has born. All means appraised, they discipline the fair Integrity requires of perfect care.
Near shore, the fawning airs of pride blow on The ship of low ambition as the port Of youth is left, though life truth not resort To worldly confidence. Such day's bygone. Awake you Sleepers, grab onto the helm Of discipline and keep a watchful eye For them false prophets' quackery that o’er whelms The carnal reason; now, the trial draws nigh! Set ores to deeper waters, brave the depths Of judgment and sustain the vast relief 'gainst piercing cynicism which has cleft Many good hulls upon the Siren’s reef. The hero fronts the dark and Dagon stays Enchanted, winning gems from wisdom's lay.
Seeming and unseemly, like and dislike The teeter and the totter is such play Of mind and meaning, cause and causal plight Which founding can confound the night with day. Such boy is father to the man while life On loss is nourished; so a fusion rules Through universal verse as all is strife On one compounded simile endued. Now what in words the wise of men contend Consistent with or contrawise contrived Life meets centripetal where spirit bends The line’s division into circumscribed. More starkly known, unknown from first to last Is Destiny, God seeking what is past.
The trial’s consideration first shall lend Two ways to go, one fearful way determined; The other, lasting truths of life extends And once encompassed, all pure hopes resound. All bloody and destructive ways are there In carnal things and impish aspirations That darkens every soul to proudly bear The image of its brutal estimations. But as a canopy of light there’s one That demonstrates the heart’s nobility To all the world, revealing as the sun The Character’s divine prosperity. Such paragon of grace shall ever lives With truth and love to conquer death and sin!
As changing faces for the change of things Accommodation is the passing rite Which gives an entrance to the newer things Where right or wrong, as given's, always nice. No boasting in the things of present worth As change is certain and as night and day Faith owns the gauntlets which, ordained by birth Initiates men to humanity. Whether comes fair or foul, all constant live Between what was, perhaps that which shall be Where nothing is received, nothing given Except that proven by integrity. More prudent then, the tested heart discerns What loss to own, what gains to yet forgo.
No longer bothered in the waking hours To vex their love in ways of cruel reproof They lighten every gloom for kinder bowers Of sweet attentions for their primal youth. Life’s innocence they keep and sooner turn On admiration of that sincere care That judges not but, ever ready, learns What good or bad, by name, is common shared. So being one within a true respect They no more care contend with right or wrong Nor weary coming days with old regrets But thank the night as harbinger of song. Alas, to love in truth and ever live In joy of grace, the best of heart to give!
Boasting nothing soon to vainly give The estimation of life’s lordly plan They overcome the world and constant live By faith, submitting as is fit for Man. Too soon, conceited banter comes about On winds of contradiction, inward born For outward wreck upon the teeth of doubt As partial men, from seeming self are shorn. But owning what is due they right respect The station that sets them among the stars So puny, which at night they just reflect On cares that found with selfless disregard. Without more striving then, their love is shown To silence pride, their truth more clearly known.
So comes the heart and all transcending will To study every hope and worldly care In what is sought or whether grace distills The phantom soul; from private ways to bear All things of earthly good and evil bound As strange concoctions are at first the mead Of every way, wherein true faith resounds With substances of vital unity. No forms of vacant care to find at first Where subtle intimations leaps the mind To own the sacred unction which must bursts Up through the shadow self and misty kind. Once found in each, born by integrity They compass every care and open up The fountain of their youth, with Manhood’s key Unlocking treasures of angelic sup. Such ripened grace and beauty inward heard Reforms relations, comforting the world!
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