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Home  »  The Poets of Transcendentalism  »  Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)

George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.

Warning

Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)

POWER, reft of aspiration;

Passion, lacking inspiration;

Leisure, not of contemplation.

Thus shall danger overcome thee,

Fretted luxury consume thee,

All divineness vanish from thee.

Be a man, and be one wholly;

Keep one great love, purely, solely,

Till it make thy nature holy;

That thy way be paved in whiteness,

That thy heart may beat in lightness,

That thy being end in brightness.