avoid

Reason and Truth

7  Falsehood is Perpetual Loss
 
Reason forbade me many things which,
Instinctively, my nature was attracted to;
And a perpetual loss I feel if, knowing,
I believe a falsehood or deny the truth.

 
8  What Choice Has Man?
 
Had men followed me, confound them,
Well had I guided them to truth
Or to some plain track by which
They might arrive there soon.
For here I've lived until I'm tired
Of Time, and it of me;
And my heart has sipped
The cream of life's experience.
 
What choice has a man but solitude and loneliness,
When fate grants him nothing that he craves?
Do what you will, make peace or war:
The days with arbitrary hand bestow
Their measure to warrior and man of peace.

 
 9  None to Lead but Reason
 
You've had your way a long, long time,
You kings and tyrants,
And still you work injustice hour by hour.
What ails you that do not tread a path of glory?
A man may take the field, although he love the bower.
 
But some hope a divine leader with prophetic voice
Will rise amid the gazing silent ranks.
An idle thought! There's none to lead but reason,
To point the morning and the evening ways.

 
10  The Large Gifts of Death
 
Who'll rescue me from living in a town
Where I am spoken of with praise unfit ?
Rich, pious, learned: such is my renown,
But many a barrier stands between me and it.
 
I admit to ignorance, yet wise was thought
By some—and is not ours a wondrous case?
For truly we all are good for naught:
I am not noble nor are they not base.
 
My body in life's strait grip scarce bears the strain—
How shall I move decay to clasp it round?
O the large gifts of death! Ease after pain
He brings to us, and silence after sound.

 
11  Truth Hides Her Face
 
Experience nests in thickets of close shade,
Who gives his mind and life may hunt it down.
How many months and years have I outstayed!
And yet, I think myself a fool and clown.
 
And falsehood like a star all naked stands,
But truth still hides her face in hood and veil.
Is there no ship or shore my outstretched hands
May grasp, to save me from this malicious sea?

 
12  The Scoundrel's Plea
 
Make not, when you work a deed of shame,  
The scoundrel's plea, "My forbears did the same".

 
13  Time and Space
 
Two fates still hold us fast,
A future and a past;
Two vessels' vast embrace
Surrounds us—time and space.
 
And when we ask what end
Our maker did intend,
Some answering voice is heard
That utters no plain word.

Pages: 1· 2· 3· 4· 5· 6· 7· 8