Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/309

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Is crime's dark brood the chosen food
For the intellects of the great and good?
Will the wise deride and cast aside
Life's better things in a search for blood?

Shall I scatter thoughts full of dismal doubts,
And hopeless pinings and dark distrust,
To fall apart, in a human heart,
And spring like weeds from its damp and dust?

Or shall I cull from the beautiful,
The budding hope and the tuneful truth;
Bright flowers to spring, sweet birds to sing,
In the failing heart, immortal youth?

Oh, the thorn and the tare are everywhere!
The world hath enough of doubt and woe;
By breeze and blast, they are sown broadcast
Midst the golden germs that the sowers sow.


HOLLYHOCKS

O the hollyhocks on their leafy stalks,
O the busy, buzzing of bumble bees,
O the rollicking ripple that blithely talks
To the merry robin that gaily rocks
Her babies up in the alder trees!

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