I "SOUL, that in some high world hast made Pre-natal unbewailing choice, Thro' Earth's perplexities of shade Sternly to suffer and rejoice;— Breathe in me too thine ardent aim; Let me too seek thy soaring goal:— However severed, still the same My hope with thine, O kindred Soul! II "Yet pause. The roaring North has driven Beyond our ken his foamy car; Serener than the height of heaven This summer sea lies near and far; And flecked with flying shade and shine Heaves a dove-green, dove-purple breast, And shimmers to the soft sky-line Thro' faery solitudes of rest. III "No fruit has Ocean's tumult found; His wave-battalions blindly ran;— Hushed after all that storm and sound Old Ocean ends as he began:— On @3thee@1 no random angers fell; Oh, not for naught thy skies were wild! Thine Angel marked them, measuring well The storms that should not slay his child. IV "Thine eager youth they could not dim; They left thee slender, left thee fair; Left the soft life of voice and limb, The blue, the gold, of eyes, of hair. Within a sterner change they wrought,— Beset thy Will with surging wrong, Smote on the citadels of Thought, And found thee ready, left thee strong. V "Thy worst is over. Pause and hark! Thine inmost Angel whispers clear, 'We leave the blackness and the dark; The end is Love, the end is near.' Lift then anew the lessening weight; Fight on, to men and angels dear! Fare forth, brave soul, from fate to fate;— Yet ah—one moment linger here!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BUSY HEART by RUPERT BROOKE SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: RUTHERFORD MCDOWELL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE CASTLE BY THE SEA by JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND POVERTY PARTS GUDE COMPANIE by JOANNA BAILLIE AFTER CONSTRUING by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON |