Aspirations

                         I.
When I behold the bitterness and strife 
     Of man, embattled against glorious truth, 
     With blind malignity and fierce unruth,
Damming the pulses of the better life 
Back on the heart, I turn, with sorrow rife, 
     To sweet-voiced Nature, whose perpetual youth 
     Is hope and promise; and the flower, which showeth 
     Like love to all that in its circle groweth, 
Maketh me wish that I too was a flower,
     That I might feel the sweet breath of its love, 
And, like it, serve my God from hour to hour;
     And, e’en when crushed by careless steps above, 
Could yield the spoiler all my fragrant living, 
In the most odorous breath of a divine forgiving.

                         II
On the clear waters of the stream I look, 
     And see them joyous, as they overleap 
     All clogs which fall, to dam them from the deep;
Then say I, "O that I were made a brook, 
Which ever leapeth from its pebbly nook, 
     And naught from its unbounded goal can keep;
     So might I bless the valleys, as I'd sweep 
Still to one point, through many a sinuous crook.
I view the stars, and sigh to be a star,
     That, o’er the reach of human hate and fear,
I might roll on, God-moved, with none to jar
     The eternal music of my golden sphere;
There is no thing of God’s I would not be,
Rather than this repulsed and spirit-fettered me.

                         III
Then Trust awakes, triumphant over ill,
     Teaching the soul that in herself is power
     To make her pure love odorous as a flower;
Though spurned, exhaling all its sweetness still,
While her whole life is crystal as the rill;
     And the far stars, which on our midnight shower
     Their mystic light, undimmed though tempests lower,
Shall with less glory the serene arch fill,
     Than her divine thoughts, her all-spanning sphere;
And anthems nobler than creation’s dawn
Heard rung from all the golden harps of morn
     May the high soul pour, jubilant and clear;
There is no thing of God’s that I would be,
Other than this pure self he would create of me.