WHO has left the world alone As though his heart were but a stone? Left innocence and the good will To torture and contempt, until The best souls born have bowed to ill? Who keeps silence when we ask? Like ogre in archangel's mask Peers down blandly through the sun And smooths all after the typhoon, Forgetting quickly the worst done? We men leave each other lone; Our hearts lie inert like stone. For our good we have used wrong, Tuned other's woe to a sweet song, And remembered no shame long. Yet through gloom have shone a few Spirits wholly kindled, who Set at naught the odds and won, Dared be kinder than the sun To good transmuting evil done. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLEEP by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE DEBT by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE WORD by WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW INSTRUCTIONS, SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN IN PARIS, FOR THE MOB IN ENGLAND by MARY (CUMBERLAND) ALCOCK |