Duty.
O work that Duty shows
Through her revealing light!
It is in thee my bosom glows
With infinite delight!
The shadows flee away
Like mist before the sun;
And thy achievement seems to say,
The will of God is done!
Ah, what if Duty seem
A mistress cold and stern!
Can he who owns her rule supreme
From her caresses turn?
O work that Duty shows
In light so fair and clear,
Whoever thy completion knows
Is 'minded heaven is near!
Moses.
In Pharaoh's dazzling court
No work did Moses find
That could heroic life support
And fill his heart and mind.
Beneath their grievous task
Did not his kindred groan?
And a great voice above him ask,
"Dost thou thy brethren own?"
The work which Duty meant
At length he found and did,
And built a grander monument
Than any pyramid.
Sometimes his eyes were dim,
All signs he could not spell;
Yet he endured as seeing Him
Who is invisible.
Discoverers.
In search of greener shores
The Northmen braved the seas
And reached, those faith-illumined rowers,
Our dear Hesperides.
And when Oblivion
Swept all their work away,
And left for faith to feed upon
But shadows lean and gray,
Columbus dreamed the dream
Which fired a southern clime
And hailed a world--O toil supreme!--
As from the womb of Time.
God's dauntless witnesses
For toil invincible,
They gazed across uncharted seas
On the invisible.