"To be, not seem!" -- the phrase is old, And looks heroic, 't is confessed; And yet, for all its gloss of gold, 'T will scarcely stand the final test; For, in effect, full many a truth Is in the seeming, not the sooth. Be false, then? No! -- let Truth appear In her own guise, if so it be Her words are such as men may hear Unhurt, and such as harm not thee; But guard thy seeming, nor reveal The fault that silence would conceal. "Open and honest!" sayest thou: "Why to my neighbor not make known All ugly soul-spots I avow To my own conscience as my own; Plain as the freckles he may trace, Unasked, upon my hand or face?" I answer thus: The Mighty One Who made thy best, immortal part, Made it invisible, that none May see thy mind or read thy heart, Save as thou wilt; else were thy soul In others', not thine own, control. 'T is well that God alone can see The hearts of men that He has made Within their breasts; since only he With their infirmities has weighed Their sins, -- to human frailty just, Knowing full well we are but dust. And as we hide, for very shame, With garments cunning Art doth lend, Whatever of our fleshly frame, Undraped, would mortal eyes offend (While to the Maker, ne'er the less, His power and wisdom we confess); So let our souls -- which, all unclad, Though fair as souls on earth may be, Were still a sight to make men sad, Unmeet for human eyes to see -- In modest drapery conceal The faults 't were shameful to reveal. Nay, as, with no unlawful arts, We deck our forms to make them fair, Who shall aver our wayward hearts May not receive an equal care, That, like our bodies, they may be In seemly plight for company? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE POET by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR MONOTONOUS VARIETY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE HIRED MAN by EVA K. ANGLESBURG HELLENS RAPE; OR A LIGHT LANTHORNE FOR LIGHT LADIES by RICHARD BARNFIELD THE FIRST BOOK OF URIZEN by WILLIAM BLAKE |