Poems (Hoffman)/True Nobility
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TRUE NOBILITY.
Some souls ascend like incense ever burning
In golden censers classed with common clay,
Soaring to sunlit heights sweet lessons learning,
No frowning cloud their viewless wings can stay.
In golden censers classed with common clay,
Soaring to sunlit heights sweet lessons learning,
No frowning cloud their viewless wings can stay.
They tune their harps to nature's varied story,
Vibrating all the tender hidden strings;
They deem the clouds below but transitory
And join the happy song the skylark sings.
Vibrating all the tender hidden strings;
They deem the clouds below but transitory
And join the happy song the skylark sings.
What though their hands may toil with strong endeavor
At tasks unworthy of a noble mind,
Oft stony pathways lead to heights that never
Would welcome us were these not left behind.
At tasks unworthy of a noble mind,
Oft stony pathways lead to heights that never
Would welcome us were these not left behind.
The pure air of the mountains seemeth clearer
Because of the dense fogs that lie below,
So disappointments bear the spirit nearer
To measure out the things that it should know.
Because of the dense fogs that lie below,
So disappointments bear the spirit nearer
To measure out the things that it should know.
Did no cloud mar our skies' serenest beauty,
No blasts of sorrow hush our sweetest song;
We might not care to find our highest duty
Nor prize the good beyond the sway of wrong.
No blasts of sorrow hush our sweetest song;
We might not care to find our highest duty
Nor prize the good beyond the sway of wrong.
We might forget the possible awaiting
For those who by an ever-onward flight
Reach the sublime of mind and soul creating
Beyond the fogs, beyond the clouds of night.
For those who by an ever-onward flight
Reach the sublime of mind and soul creating
Beyond the fogs, beyond the clouds of night.
We might not look above the present pleasure
Were bluest skies and sunbeams ever ours,
We might not seek to find a purer treasure
Were all our sunlit pathways strewn with flowers.
Were bluest skies and sunbeams ever ours,
We might not seek to find a purer treasure
Were all our sunlit pathways strewn with flowers.
Some never rise to heights of thought and feeling
But in the stagnant air below abide,
Impenetrable clouds arise concealing
The purity they to themselves denied.
But in the stagnant air below abide,
Impenetrable clouds arise concealing
The purity they to themselves denied.
Living like beasts, no higher thought possessing
Than base iniquity or selfish gain,
No wish for good in all their lives expressing,
Ah! who can say they do not live in vain?
Than base iniquity or selfish gain,
No wish for good in all their lives expressing,
Ah! who can say they do not live in vain?
What though they move among the higher classes
In social life and live in splendid state,
Not always he, who most of wealth amasses,
When measured mind and soul, is truly great.
In social life and live in splendid state,
Not always he, who most of wealth amasses,
When measured mind and soul, is truly great.
But they who live above earth's vile pollution
Whose outward things are not their greatest worth,
Whether in public life or home seclusion,
These are the true nobility of earth.
Whose outward things are not their greatest worth,
Whether in public life or home seclusion,
These are the true nobility of earth.
Whether the gentle hand that rocks the cradle,
Or that that sways the mighty powers of state,
Ennobling virtue shall alone be able
To make the dens of evil desolate.
Or that that sways the mighty powers of state,
Ennobling virtue shall alone be able
To make the dens of evil desolate.
Virtue toils on, above the clouds impending,
To heights all sparkling in the sunlight's glow;
Up, onward, to a purer air ascending,
Leaving the crowd submerged in fogs below.
To heights all sparkling in the sunlight's glow;
Up, onward, to a purer air ascending,
Leaving the crowd submerged in fogs below.