Poems (Kennedy)/Forgiveness

by Sara Beaumont Kennedy

FORGIVENESS

I SAY to you:
 Forgive your friend, if so he drops
  Into your heart a stinging word.
 He will be sorry by and by
  And all his higher nature stirred
 To live more purely when he sees
  You put aside the thing you heard.

And yet again:
 Forgive your enemy; he wounds
  With malice, hoping that the dart
 May rankle deep and fester sore.
  You shame him by the better part
 Of unrequited hate, and rob
  Of all its after-lust the venomed dart.

Your friend and foe—
 Forgive these two the seventy
  By seven times that love decreed,
 For each forgiveness lifts you up
  (From taint of sordid passions freed)
 To heights of true nobility,
  Where Truth fulfils the spirit's need.

But mark you this:
 One thing you shall not e'er forgive
  The while the folding years descend,
 And that is YOUR OWN SELF, if so
  You wrong a foe or wound a friend;
 For no soul that condones its fault
  Comes white and unscarred to the end.