THESE ARE the days of immense and solitary strength: When to be alone is no hardship And to go forth among men is a satisfying joy ... For I have found myself: I have ceased to be ashamed of the things I cannot do And have become proud of the things I can do: I have accepted simple living and endless labor: I have accepted peril and risk all around me, And I have become patient with the world and with my own faltering. I live with this moment, and suck out its particular essence, Whether it be the bakery lunchroom and the shopgirls about me, Whether it be some poor dull person stuffed with rich eating, Whether it be stars over the snow and the sharp winds of winter, Or whether it be my narrow room, and unbusied loneliness ... So living, I give myself to the purpose of the Earth... I let the Mother put forth through me as she puts forth through the least bud on her breast, I open the way for the rise of that sap and shape it for men and women... And so I am what I was born for: and peace comes in so being: And strength... For so Earth herself is for me, and even the stars in their courses... Is this egotism? Shall tomorrow break me in the dust till my cry goes up to the heavens? Shall a bitter cup come to my lips after this splendor? Even so... I yet shall know what is possible in the mighty hour, I yet shall know that a gaint sleeps in my heart, And that after the despoiled days have gone over Again I shall be myself and live in that victory. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF NATURE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON CHARLESTON by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE PREJUDICE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A MORTIFYING MISTAKE by ANNA MARIA PRATT ADLESTROP by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS BALLAD: THE THINGS OF NO ACCOUNT by FRANCOIS VILLON |