Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HOPE'S YEARNINGS, by HORACE SMITH Poet's Biography First Line: How sweet it is, when wearied with the jars Last Line: To realise the aspirings of the soul. Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio Subject(s): Earth; Faith; Heaven; Hope; Nature; Soul; World; Belief; Creed; Paradise; Optimism | ||||||||
How sweet it is, when wearied with the jars Of wrangling sects, each soured with bigot leaven, To let the Spirit burst its prison bars And soar into the deep repose of Heaven! How sweet it is, when sick with strife and noise Of the fell brood that owes to faction birth, To turn to Nature's tranquillizing joys, And taste the soothing harmonies of Earth! But though the lovely Earth, and Sea, and Air, Be rich in joys that form a sumless sum, Filled with Nepenthes that can banish care, And wrap the senses in Elysium, 'Tis sweeter still from these delights to turn Back to our kind -- to watch the course of Man, And for that blessed consummation yearn, When Nature shall complete her noble plan; When hate, oppression, vice, and crime, shall cease, When War's ensanguined banner shall be furled, And to our moral system shall extend The perfectness of the material world. Sweetest of all, when 'tis our happy fate To drop some tribute, trifling though it prove, On the thrice-hallowed altar dedicate To Man's improvement, truth, and social love. Faith in our race's destined elevation, And its incessant progress to the goal, Tends, by exciting hope and emulation, To realise the aspirings of the soul. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOPE IS NOT FOR THE WISE by ROBINSON JEFFERS SONNET by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPRING FLOODS by MAURICE BARING SONNET: 9. HOPE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT by DEREK MAHON ADDRESS TO THE MUMMY AT BELZONI'S EXHIBITION by HORACE SMITH |
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