Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE IDLE WORD, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE IDLE WORD, by                    
First Line: We did not spare to speak him ill
Last Line: Look up and find another star.
Subject(s): Angels; God; Idleness; Laziness; Sloth; Indolence


WE did not spare to speak him ill
But yesterday, as one might do
If it were only I or you;
And now the breath of blame is still.

O strife of creeds, and party cry,
And every voice dividing men,
God sends a silence through you when
His great dark angel passes by!

Were we quite sure of all we said?
We would not say or think it now;
In penitence our heads we bow;
We know him—after he is dead.

Well may the tears of sorrow fall;
Perhaps he had a larger part
Than you or I, in his great heart,
With One of old who died for all.

And where the guilt? Ah, who shall say
How near to some well meaning one
The tangled thread of cause may run?
For tongue and pen have power to slay.

Who knows that idle words and vain,
Flung off like arrows in the dark,
May never somewhere strike the spark
That fires to crime an idle brain?

But it is done, and all is o'er;
We shall not see his face again;
We know he loved his fellow men,
And loved his God: what would we more?

The clouds will clear; where shines afar
That galaxy of good and great
As pilot-beacons for the State,
Look up and find another star.





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