THE better portion didst thou choose, Great Heart. Thy God's first choice, and pledge of Gentile grace! Faith's truest type, he with unruffled face Bore the world's smile, and bade her slaves depart; Whether, a trader, with no trader's art, He buys in Canaan his last resting-place, -- Or freely yields rich Siddim's ample space, -- Or braves the rescue, and the battle's smart, Yet scorns the heathen gifts of those he saved. O happy in their soul's high solitude, Who commune thus with God, and not with earth! Amid the scoffings of the wealth-enslaved, A ready prey, as though in absent mood They calmly move, nor reck the unmanner'd mirth. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALONZO CHURCHILL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TIME THE HANGMAN by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS ON FIRST ENTERING WESTMINSTER ABBEY by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY ODE TO FORTUNE by FITZ-GREENE HALLECK THE SOLSEQUIUM by ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE TO A CHILD OF QUALITY, FIVE YEARS OLD. THE AUTHOR THAN FORTY by MATTHEW PRIOR BEGGAR TO BEGGAR CRIED by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO THE MISS WEBSTERS, WITH DR. AIKIN'S WISH by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |