Poem September 10, 1904 Issue

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WM. ORDWAY PARTRIDGE.

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If thou hast struck one blow for liberty,
Be it of slave or shackled intellect,
Thou hast not failed. If into some lone life
The light of holier days has come through thee,
Flooding the shadowed years with sympathy;
Or if some soul of mortal vision dim
Has, through thy love, been led to clearer things,
Thou hast not failed. If thou hast given a meaning
To flowers that yesterday were set aside,
And clothed them with the beauty of thy thought;
If to hard-handed labor thou hast made
Sweet the enduring rest the twilight hour,
Or shown the beauty of the field and sky
Unto the peasant, or across the wave
Unto some brother thou hast stretched a hand
Amid the oft-deceiving tides of life,
Thou hast not failed. Or if alone thy lot
To find thine own deep faults and feel the need,
The ever-present need of prayer, and faith
In men and things divine, thy life has been
Of more enduring worth than that of kings,
Princes, and prophets of the earth. The world,
Alas, is but the world. Hold it at naught,
And do not soil thy sandals with its dust,
Or leave them still without the temple gate!
Undaunted, yet with calm humility;
Thy sympathy still deepening with thy years—
And past the bourne of failure or success—
Enter in peace the kingdoms of thy soul.

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The problem of human life and man's relation to his...
September 10, 1904
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