The School of the Heart, and Other Poems

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 Excerpt: ...is the beaten path. Shall miserable Man, the sport of winds And the keen breath of the eager winter air, Think condescension to bow down in woe, To court his brother dust, and lift his cries, Wafting against the thunder-thrones of Heaven The incense of his wailings? Not that power Is thereby sacrificed, or human souls Lose aught of marvellous splendour--know ye not That he who kneels is higher than who stands? The prostrate than the upright--the opprest Than the oppressor--how more heavenly light Breaks in upon the spirit through distress? The reed that waves along the river's brink, Spearing its way into the summer air, Is not so glorious, as when laid by winds It rests upon the mirror of the flood, Gemmed with bright globes of dew--the stream that winds Through unopposing flats its teeming way, Floated with merchandise to the broad sea, We love not like the tumbling mountain linn, That hath not where to flow, breaking its path Through fragments rough, and over mossy crags, Down to the headlong cliff that tops the waves. Hast thou not marked, how close together linked Glory and Sadness walk--how never flower Were half so beautiful, did we not know That it must droop and wither--deem not then That all the anguish-cries of this great world Which reach us where we stand, find not in Heaven Fit greeting; there are those who minister Outside the golden gates, to purify The sorrow and the joy that enters there; And I have heard from that bright Visitant Who comes to me each night, when my small flock Is folded safe, by wearied Nature left To the great Shepherd who can never sleep, That often times the pale and weeping souls Dazzle them as they pass to meet their Lord In glittering frost-robes of the purest spar Circled with many crowns; and often times One who w...