The Englishman and Other Poems
who were never born; And as they passed, the Angel laughed in scorn.

p. 16

p. 17THE TRUTH TELLER

p. 17

The Truth Teller lifts the curtain, And shows us the people’s plight; And everything seems uncertain, And nothing at all looks right. Yet out of the blackness groping, My heart finds a world in bloom; For it somehow is fashioned for hoping, And it cannot live in the gloom.

He tells us from border to border, That race is warring with race; With riot and mad disorder, The earth is a wretched place; And yet ere the sun is setting I am thinking of peace, not strife; For my heart has a way of forgetting All things save the joy of life.

p. 18I heard in my Youth’s beginning That earth was a region of woe, And trouble, and sorrow, and sinning:  The Truth Teller told me so. I knew it was true, and tragic; And I mourned over much that was wrong; And then, by some curious magic, The heart of me burst into song.

p. 18

The years have been going, going, A mixture of pleasure and pain; But the Truth Teller’s books are showing That evil is on the gain. And I know that I ought to be grieving, And I should be too sad to sing; But somehow I keep on believing That life is a glorious thing.

p. 19JUST YOU

p. 19

All the selfish joys of earth, I am getting through. That which used to lure and lead Now I pass and give no heed; Only one thing seems of worth—  Just you.

Not for me the lonely height, And the larger view; Lowlier ways seem fair and wide, While we wander side by side. One thing makes the whole world bright—  Just you.

Not for distant goals I run, No great aim pursue; Most of earth’s ambitions seem Like the shadow of a dream. All the world to me means one—  Just you.

p. 20REFLECTION

p. 20

Twice have I seen God’s full reflected grace. Once when the wailing of a child at birth Proclaimed another soul had come to earth, That look shone on, and through the mother’s face.


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