Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO MR. FORBES-ROBERTSON: 27. SUBSERVIENCY, by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MR. FORBES-ROBERTSON: 27. SUBSERVIENCY, by                    
First Line: No man may accept a gift with honor--
Last Line: And by acceptance would their honor cast aside.
Subject(s): Honor; Men


No man may accept a gift with honor—
Save from a friend, a friend that he knows well,
Who, when friendship prompts him to be donor
Gives more than e'en the gift itself could tell;
Whose heart and soul go out in loving thought,
Whose prayers attend the simplest proffered gift,
Whose act in kindliness and love's begot,
Whose motives none would ever think to sift.

But where pure love doth prompt the giver's hand,
No servile motives underlie the act,
Then honor, truth and rectitude shall stand
And vouch for its sincerity in fact.
But well it is for young men to beware,
For often in a gift there is implied
Subserviency or that which might ensnare
And by acceptance would their honor cast aside.





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