MISTAKES
God sent us here to make mistakes,
To strive, to fail, to re-begin,
To taste the tempting fruit of sin,
And find what bitter food it makes,
To miss the path, to go astray,
To wander blindly in the night;
But, searching, praying for the light,
Until at last we find the way.
And looking back along the past,
We know we needed all the strain
Of fear and doubt and strife and pain
To make us value peace, at last.
Who fails, finds later triumph sweet;
Who stumbles once, walks then with care,
And knows the place to cry “Beware”
To other unaccustomed feet.
Through strife the slumbering soul awakes,
We learn on error’s troubled route
The truths we could not prize without
The sorrow of our sad mistakes.
DUAL
You say that your nature is double; that life
Seems more and more intricate, complex, and dual,
Because in your bosom there wages the strife
’Twixt an angel of light and a beast that is cruel—
An angel who whispers your spirit has wings,
And a beast who would chain you to temporal things.
I listen with interest to all you have told,
And now let me give you my view of your trouble:
You are to be envied, not pitied; I hold
That every strong nature is always made double.
The beast has his purpose; he need not be slain:
He should serve the good angel in harness and chain.
The body that never knows carnal desires,
The heart that to passion is always a stranger,
Is merely a furnace with unlighted fires;
It sends forth no warmth while it threatens no danger.
But who wants to shiver in cold safety there?
Touch flame to the fuel! then watch it with care.