If you have spoken something beautiful, Or touched the dead canvas to life, Or made the cold stone to speak— You who know the secret heart of beauty; If you have done one thing That has made gentler the churlish world, Though mankind pass you by, And feed and clothe you grudgingly— Though the world starve you, And God answer not your nightly prayers, And you grow old hungering still at heart, And walk friendless in your way, And lie down at last forgotten— If all this befall you who have created beauty, You shall still leave a bequest to the world Greater than institutions and rules and commerce; And by the immutable law of human heart The God of the universe is your debtor, If you have made gentler the churlish world. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO DISRAELI ON CONSERVATISM by MARIANNE MOORE THE VOICE OF THE GRASS by SARAH ROBERTS BOYLE DUTY SURVIVING SELF-LOVE; THE ONLY SURE FRIEND OF DECLINING LIFE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TO MUSIC [TO BECALM HIS FEVER] by ROBERT HERRICK BILL AND JOE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES ELIOT'S OAK; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |