A kindly word and a tender tone, -- To only God is their virtue known; They can lift from the dust the abject head, They can turn a foe to a friend instead; The heart close-barred with passion and pride Will fling at their knock its portal wide; And the hate that blights, and the scorn that sears, Will melt in the fountain of childlike tears. What ice-bound barriers have been broken, What rivers of love been stirred, By a word in kindness spoken, By only a gentle word. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOCKED OUT; AS TOLD TO A CHILD by ROBERT FROST PURSUIT OF THE WORD by ROBERT FROST GETHSEMANE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TO RIDGELY TORRENCE - PLAYWRIGHT by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BOOTH'S PHILIPPI by EDGAR LEE MASTERS MONODY ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM MARION REEDY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS NEBUCHADNEZZAR: OR EATING GRASS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |