Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HYMN OF THE TRUE MAN, by ALICE CARY


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HYMN OF THE TRUE MAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Peace to the true man's ashes! Weep not for those
Last Line: Is greener than the misletoe of the oak.
Subject(s): Truth


PEACE to the True Man's ashes! Weep not for those
Whose days in old delusions have grown dim;
Such lives as his are triumphs, and their close
An immortality weep not for him.

As feathers wafted from the eagle's wings
Lie bright among the rocks they cannot warm.
So lie the flowery lays that Genius brings,
In the cold turf that wraps his honour'd form

A practical rebuker of vain strife,
Bolder in deeds than words, from beardless youth
To the white hairs of age, he made his life
A beautiful consecration to the Truth.

Virtue, neglected long, and trampled down,
Grew stronger in the echo of his name;
And, shrinking self-condemn'd beneath his frown,
The cheek of harlotry grew red with shame

Serene with conscious peace, he strew'd his way
With sweet humanities, the growth of love;
Shaping to right his actions, day by day,
Faithful to this world and to that above.

The ghosts of blind belief and hideous crime,
Of spirit-broken loves, and hopes betray'd,
That flit among the broken walls of Time,
Are by the True Man's exorcisms laid

Blest is his life, who to himself is true,
And blest his death -- for memory, when he dies,
Comes, with a lover's eloquence, to renew
Our faith in manhood's upward tendencies.

Weep for the self-abased, and for the slave,
And for God's children, darken'd with the smoke
Of the red altar -- not for him whose grave
Is greener than the misletoe of the oak.





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