User:Alien333/Random poem

Random poem: Poems (Kimball)/The Ladder

by: Harriet McEwen Kimball

THE LADDER.

FAST and vigil, alms and prayer,
These the penitential stair
Leading slowly day by day
Up the toilsome heavenward way.

Following these I thought to be
Always near, dear Lord, to Thee;
Now—alas! Thou knowest all;
Fruitless strife and frequent fall!

Trust of self, or selfish aim,
Toil unhallowed by Thy Name,
Envy, pride,—oh, make me know
What has laid Thy servant low!

By this same unchanging stair—
Fast and vigil, alms and prayer—
Following Thee Thy saints have passed
To victorious peace at last.

And this ladder I must scale;
Nought instead will me avail;
Every round I know I need,
Though my feet thereon should bleed.

None the less, dear Lord, I know,
Worse than vain each step I go
If Thou art not at my side
To prevent, uphold, and guide.

Take in Thine my trembling hand;
Give me grace and strength to stand;
Once again I will assay
At Thy word the heavenward way.

Oh for courage not to faint!
Oh for silence from complaint!
Oh for patience to forbear;
Love to conquer; faith to dare!

Stay me, Lord, with holy fear!
Fill me, Lord, with holy cheer!
Humbly leaning on Thy strength
May I gain the end at length.

Nought I can do, or have done;
If I win't is Thou hast won;
Putting all my trust in Thee
Now my ladder's worth I see.

Noinclude:

This is just a random poem from the 59 Poems I've proofread (4223 individual poems), they're not filtered in any way, so there's no guarantee on the quality of it, although most of it is good.

Relying on User:Alien333/Poemlist to get this subpage list:

User:Alien333/Random poem/Allen
User:Alien333/Random poem/Bacon
User:Alien333/Random poem/Baldwyn
User:Alien333/Random poem/Barrett
User:Alien333/Random poem/Bass
User:Alien333/Random poem/Blagden
User:Alien333/Random poem/Blind
User:Alien333/Random poem/Bradford
User:Alien333/Random poem/Bushnell
User:Alien333/Random poem/Carmichael
User:Alien333/Random poem/Chandler
User:Alien333/Random poem/Cook
User:Alien333/Random poem/Coolidge
User:Alien333/Random poem/Craik
User:Alien333/Random poem/Cromwell
User:Alien333/Random poem/Curwen
User:Alien333/Random poem/Denver
User:Alien333/Random poem/Duer
User:Alien333/Random poem/Eddy
User:Alien333/Random poem/Elliott
User:Alien333/Random poem/Eliza Gabriella Lewis
User:Alien333/Random poem/Freston
User:Alien333/Random poem/Follen
User:Alien333/Random poem/Geisse
User:Alien333/Random poem/Greenwell
User:Alien333/Random poem/Greenwood
User:Alien333/Random poem/Griffith
User:Alien333/Random poem/Hazlett-Bevis
User:Alien333/Random poem/Howard
User:Alien333/Random poem/Jenkins
User:Alien333/Random poem/Katz
User:Alien333/Random poem/Kemble
User:Alien333/Random poem/Kimball
User:Alien333/Random poem/Laflin
User:Alien333/Random poem/Larcom
User:Alien333/Random poem/Marianne Moore
User:Alien333/Random poem/May
User:Alien333/Random poem/McDonald
User:Alien333/Random poem/Merrill
User:Alien333/Random poem/Mitford
User:Alien333/Random poem/Nora May French
User:Alien333/Random poem/Osgood
User:Alien333/Random poem/Prescott
User:Alien333/Random poem/Rice
User:Alien333/Random poem/Ripley
User:Alien333/Random poem/Rowe
User:Alien333/Random poem/Ryan
User:Alien333/Random poem/Scudder
User:Alien333/Random poem/Sherwin
User:Alien333/Random poem/Shipton
User:Alien333/Random poem/Smith
User:Alien333/Random poem/Stephens
User:Alien333/Random poem/Storrie
User:Alien333/Random poem/Trask
User:Alien333/Random poem/Truesdell
User:Alien333/Random poem/Tynan
User:Alien333/Random poem/Van Vorst
User:Alien333/Random poem/Welby
User:Alien333/Random poem/White

of which every page is itself a poem list. These poem lists are concatenated (there are multiple to avoid making the page too large), one's picked at random and transcluded (without the header, except for the author).