George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
RestJohn Sullivan Dwight (18131893)
S
Itself cannot spoil!
Is not true leisure
One with true toil?
Still do thy best;
Use it, not waste it,
Else ’t is no rest.
Near thee? all round?
Only hath duty
Such a sight found.
The busy career;
Rest is the fitting
Of self to its sphere.
Clear without strife,
Fleeing to ocean
After its life.
Nowhere hath knelt;
Fuller emotion
Heart never felt.
The Highest and Best!
’T is onwards, unswerving,
And that is true rest.