COME back again, my olden heart! -- Ah, fickle spirit and untrue, I bade the only guide depart Whose faithfulness I surely knew: I said, my heart is all too soft; He who would climb and soar aloft Must needs keep ever at his side The tonic of a wholesome pride. Come back again, my olden heart! -- Alas, I called not then for thee; I called for Courage, and apart From Pride if Courage could not be, Then welcome, Pride! and I shall find In thee a power to lift the mind This low and grovelling joy above -- 'Tis but the proud can truly love. Come back again, my olden heart! -- With incrustations of the years Uncased as yet, -- as then thou wert, Full-filled with shame and coward fears: Wherewith amidst a jostling throng Of deeds, that each and all were wrong, The doubting soul, from day to day, Uneasy paralytic lay. Come back again, my olden heart! I said, Perceptions contradict, Convictions come, anon depart, And but themselves as false convict. Assumptions, hasty, crude and vain, Full oft to use will Science deign; The corks the novice plies to-day The swimmer soon shall cast away. Come back again, my olden heart! I said, Behold, I perish quite, Unless to give me strength to start, I make myself my rule of right: It must be, if I act at all, To save my shame I have at call The plea of all men understood, -- Because I willed it, it is good. Come back again, my olden heart! I know not if in very deed This means alone could aid impart To serve my sickly spirit's need; But clear alike of wild self-will, And fear that faltered, paltered still, Remorseful thoughts of after days A way espy betwixt the ways. Come back again, old heart! Ah me! Methinks in those thy coward fears There might, perchance, a courage be, That fails in these the manlier years; Courage to let the courage sink, Itself a coward base to think, Rather than not for heavenly light Wait on to show the truly right. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HUGH SELWYN MAUBERLEY: 1. E.P. ODE POUR L'ELECTION DE SON SEPULCHRE by EZRA POUND SONNET DEDICATORY by AUGUSTE ANGELLIER THE IMPROVISATORE: THE INDUCTION TO THE SECOND FYTTE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES THE CONTRAST; THE STORMY SIDE by LEVI BISHOP CLIFF DWELLER LYRICS: THE SOLOIST by BERTON BRALEY BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS: BOOK 1. THE FIRST SONG by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |