Innate Goodness
There is no heart but hath some good therein
Some better thought, a ??? that gently ????
Into high faith and ??? ??? shall ????
Bountiful plains, which day by day, ??? ???
The ???? hears from the ??? ??? of sin.
The human breast is not that thing accursed
Which ye have deemed it, ???? of the worst
Of human ills, ??? ???? hath it been
The Rabbi’s toil[?] to utterly dethrone
The indwelling Greatness, which alone makes man;
But not in vain hath Love’s sweet sunbeam shone
Or Pity’s dew been shed, since time began;
They call to life the buried good which slept,
And teach the bigot priest how well God’s gift is kept.
- Title
- Innate Goodness
- First Line
- There is no heart but hath some good therein
- Creator
-
George Shepard Burleigh
- Bibliographic Citation
- George S. Burleigh Papers, 1825-1902. John Hay Library, Brown University. Small Scrapbook 83
- For the Voice of Freedom (VT) - precise reference to be researched
- Subject
- Religion
- Comments
- Under E.D.H. pseudonym
- Woefully incomplete transcription; to be repaired with access to better photocopy
- An early example of what would be a life-long distrust of clerical regulation of the spiritual life, this poem also delineates a cosmological optimism about human potential.
- In sonnet form
- While he clearly intended the Rabbi and the priest to be equal villains in this piece for their restrictive attitude to human goodness, this hits our contemporary ears as anti-Semitism
- Rating
- ★★★
- Media
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Innate Goodness