HOW full a proof of heav'n's @3all-present@1 aid Was good Armelle, a simple servant maid! A poor French girl, by parentage and birth Of low and mean condition upon earth; By education ignorant indeed, She, all her life, could neither write nor read. But she had @3that@1 which all the force of art Could neither give nor take away—a heart; An honest, humble, well disposed will, The true capacity for higher skill Than what the world, with all its learned din, Could teach—she learn'd her lesson from @3within@1; Plain, single lesson of essential kind, The love of God's pure presence in her mind. Her artless, innocent, attentive thought Was at the Source of all true knowledge taught: @3There@1 she could read the characters impress'd Upon the mind of ev'ry human breast; The native laws prescrib'd to ev'ry soul; And @3love@1, the one fulfiller of the whole. This @3holy@1 love to know and practise well, Became the sole endeavour of Armelle: Of outward things the management and rule She wisely took from this @3internal@1 school: In ev'ry work well done by @3such@1 a hand, The work was @3servile@1, but the thing was @3grand.@1 There was a dignity in all she did, Tho' from the world by meaner labours hid; If mean @3below@1, not so esteem'd @3above@1, Where all the @3grand@1 of labour is the @3love:@1 In vain to boast magnificence of scene; It is all @3meanness@1, if the @3love@1 be @3mean.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HE RULETH NOT THROUGH HE RAIGNE OVER REALMES by THOMAS WYATT BE STRONG by MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK THE KINGFISHER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE GRAVE OF A POETESS by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS FARM-YARD SONG by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE ABSTINENT LOVER by ABUL BAHR THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 89. THE LIMIT OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |