Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
IV. Sabbath: Worship: CreedHer Creed
Sarah Knowles Bolton (18411916)S
With modest air and eyes of blue;
A gentle creature, in whose face
Were mingled tenderness and grace.
“Do you believe in all that’s read
From ritual and written creed,
Essential to our human need?”
She answered, as in vague surprise,
As though the sense to her were dim,
“I only strive to follow Him.”
Sweet in her guileless maidenhood,
By dying bed, in hovel lone,
Whose sorrow she had made her own.
Sweet as the voice of singing bird;
Her hand been open in distress;
Her joy to brighten and to bless.
To know her inmost earnest thought,
With look as of the seraphim,
“I only strive to follow Him.”
We see by faith, but little know:
Perchance the sense was not so dim
To her who “strove to follow Him.”