A TEMPLE OF ART

By human wit to human uses moved

Ah, still shall art endure,

And beauty's light and lure,

To keep man noble, and make life delight,

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Tho' shadows backward fall from the engulfing night.

In a world of little aims,

VI

Sordid hopes and futile fames,
Spirit of Beauty! high thy place
In the fashioning of the race.
In this temple, built to thee,
We thy worshipers would be,
Lifting up, all undefiled,
Hearts as lowly as a child;
Humble to be taught and led
And on celestial manna fed;
So to take into our lives

Something that from Heaven derives.

THE FIRE DIVINE

THE FIRE DIVINE

THE FIRE DIVINE

HE who hath the sacred fire
Hidden in his heart of hearts,
It shall burn him clean and pure,
Make him conquer, make endure.
He to all things may aspire,
King of days, and souls, and arts.
Failure, fright, and dumb dismay
Are but wings upon his way.
Imagination and desire

Are his slaves and implements.
Faiths and foul calamities,

And the eternal ironies,

Are but voices in his choir.

Musician of decreed events
Hungers, happinesses, hates,
Friendships lost, all adverse fates,
All passions and all elements,
Are but golden instruments
In his glorious symphonies.
Subject to his firm decrees
Are the heavens, are the seas;
But in utter humbleness

Reigns he, not to ban, but bless

Cleansed, and conquering, and benign

Bearer of the fire divine.