At School

Let me keep my soul in patience,
Let me hold my heart apoise,
Drawing strength from compensations
Of a faith whose inspirations
Lie beyond this whirl and noise!

These immortal souls around me
Put my soul in pupilage;
Looks that baffle and confound me,
Ways that lure, and words that wound me, 
Ask the wisdom of a sage.

Here are all the shreds and tatters
Of our manhood in the reek
Of the human fen that scatters
Poison, or with red bolt shatters
The blue heavens of pure and meek.

Here are lily buds from gardens
Of white home-love, chaste and sweet;
Here the brave young life that hardens
In the frost-air like Katahdin’s 
Oak, the gales of winter beat.

Timid souls a frown could wither,
Tender hearts a smile makes leap;
Ardors burning to no whither,
Vigors tugging at their tether,
Fledgelings that no nest can keep!

And I stand alone confronting
    Every mood of heart and mind, —
Wills defiant, stubborn, flaunting;
Eager wits, like greyhounds, hunting
    Where the subtlest clues unwind.

Stir of plumeless aspirations,
    The appeaseless ache of wings,
Struggling to become; pulsations
Of the dull worm’s transformations;
    Ferment of unfashioned things!

All must seethe, and form, and follow,
    With this weary brain for rule!
In one harness soar or wallow
The winged fire-horse of Apollo,
    And the stolid, flat-hoofed mule!

Only love and faith unwearied,
    And the inward peace that hears
The far heavens unwind their sphered
Numbers, can attune these varied
    Life-chords jarring on my ears.

Let me keep my soul in patience,
    Let me hold my heart apoise,
Aye, and find my inspirations
Here, among the swarmed vexations
    In the work-day whirl and noise!