The Aim

O Thou who lovest not alone The swift success, the instant goal, But hast a lenient eye to mark The failures of th’ inconstant soul, Consider not my little worth,— The mean achievement, scamped in act, The high resolve and low result, The dream that durst not face the fact. But count the reach of my desire. Let this be something in Thy sight:— I have not, in the slothful dark, Forgot the Vision and the Height. Neither my body nor my soul To earth’s low ease will yield consent. I praise Thee for my will to strive. I bless Thy goad of discontent.

Collection: 
Sub Title: 
II. Prayer and Aspiration

More from Poet

  • O Child of Nations, giant-limbed, Who stand’st among the nations now, Unheeded, unadored, unhymned, With unanointed brow: How long the ignoble sloth, how long The trust in greatness not thine own? Surely the lion’s brood is strong To front the world alone! How long the indolence, ere...

  • From “Ariadne” HUNG like a rich pomegranate o’er the sea The ripened moon; along the trancèd sand The feather-shadowed ferns drooped dreamfully; The solitude’s evading harmony Mingled remotely over sea and land; A light wind woke and whispered warily, And myriad ripples tinkled on the...

  • I Hear the low wind wash the softening snow, The low tide loiter down the shore. The night, Full filled with April forecast hath no light. The salt wave on the sedge-flat pulses slow. Through the hid furrows lisp in murmurous flow The thaw’s shy ministers; and hark! The height Of heaven grows...

  • When the gray lake-water rushes Past the dripping alder-bushes, And the bodeful autumn wind In the fir-tree weeps and hushes,— When the air is sharply damp Round the solitary camp, And the moose-bush in the thicket Glimmers like a scarlet lamp,— When the birches twinkle yellow, And the...

  • In the wide awe and wisdom of the night I saw the round world rolling on its way, Beyond significance of depth or height, Beyond the interchange of dark and day. I marked the march to which is set no pause, And that stupendous orbit, round whose rim The great sphere sweeps, obedient...