'TWAS August, and the fierce sun overhead Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green, And the pale weaver, through his windows seen In Spitalfields, look'd thrice dispirited; I met a preacher there I knew, and said: 'Ill and o'erwork'd, how fare you in this scene?' 'Bravely!' said he; 'for I of late have been Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.' O human soul! as long as thou canst so Set up a mark of everlasting light, Above the howling senses' ebb and flow, To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam, Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night! Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FORERUNNERS by RALPH WALDO EMERSON A FAREWELL [TO C.E.G.] by CHARLES KINGSLEY THE FAMINE YEAR by JANE FRANCESCA WILDE EPIGRAM: 18. THE ENEMY OF LIFE by THOMAS WYATT SOME SWEET DAY by LEWIS J. BATES THE CROWN INN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN TREES ON THE CALAIS ROAD by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |