A Poem by Gerald Massey

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Hope readers enjoy this poem; poem by Gerald Massey [1828-

1907] captures some of Thakurji's & Swamiji's thoughts:

 

" The first duty of men who have to die is to learn how to live, so

as to leave the world, or something in it, a little better than they

found it. Our future life must be the natural outcome of this: the

root of the whole matter is in this life. "

 

We hear the cry for bread with plenty smiling all around;

Hill and valley in their bounty blush for man with fruitage crowned,

What a merry world it might be, opulent for all and aye,

With its lands that ask for labor, and its wealth that wastes away!

 

This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above;

And, if we did our duty, it might be full of love.

 

The leaf-tongues of the forest, and the flower-lips of the sod,

The happy birds that hymn their raptures in the ear of God,

The summer wind that bringeth music over land and sea,

Have each a voice that singeth this sweet song of songs to me--

 

" This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above;

And, if we did our duty, it might be full of love. "

 

If faith, and hope, and kindness passed, as coin, 'twixt heart and

heart,

Up through the eye's tear-blindness, how the sudden soul should start!

The dreary, dim and desolate should wear a sunny bloom,

And love should spring from buried hate, like flowers from winter's

tomb.

 

This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above;

And, if we did our duty, it might be full of love.

 

Were truth our uttered language, spirits might talk with men,

And God-illumined earth should see the Golden Age again;

The burthened heart should soar in mirth like morn's young prophet-

lark,

And misery's last tear wept on earth quench hell's last cunning spark!

 

This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above;

And, if we did our duty, it might be full of love.