Poems we all love

by Unknown

Some reckon their age by years,
Some measure their life by art,
But some of their days by the flow of their tears,
And their life by the moans of their heart.
The dials of earth may show
The length, not the depth of years—
Few or many may come, few or many may go;
But our time is best measured by tears.
Ah! not by the silver gray
That creeps through the sunny hair,
And not by the scenes we pass on our way—
And not by the furrows the finger of Care
In forehead and face has made;
Not so do we count our years;
Not by the sun of the earth—but by the shade
Of our souls—and the fall of our tears.
For the young are ofttimes old,
Though their brow be bright and fair,
While their blood beats warm, their hearts lie cold—
O'er them the Springtime—but Winter is there,
And the old are ofttimes young,
When their hair is thin and white;
And they sing in age as in youth they sung,
And they laugh, for their cross was light.
But bead by bead I tell
The rosary of my years,
From a cross, a crown they lead—'tis well!
And they are blessed with a blessing of tears.
Better a day of strife,
Than a century of sleep;
Give me instead of a long stream of life
The tempest and tears of the deep.
A thousand joys may foam
On the billows of all the years;
But never the foam brings the brave bark home—
It reaches the haven through tears.
—Father Ryan.

MERCY

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the earth beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The tribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the heart of kings,
It is an attribute of God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this—
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy.
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. —Shakespeare.

HASTE NOT, REST NOT

Without haste! Without rest!
Bind the motto to thy breast;
Bear it with thee as a spell;
Storm or sunshine, guard it well!
Heed not the flowers that round thee bloom,
Bear it onward to the tomb.

Haste not! Let no thoughtless deed
Mar for aye the spirit's speed!
Ponder well and know the right,
Onward, then, with all thy might!
Haste not! Years can ne'er atone
For one reckless action done.

Rest not! Life is sweeping by,
Go and dare before you die
Something mighty and sublime
Leave behind to conquer time!
Glorious 'tis to live for aye,
When these forms have passed away.

Haste not! Rest not! Calmly wait;
Meekly bear the stones of fate!
Duty be thy polar guide—
Do the right whate'er betide!
Haste not! Rest not! Conflicts past,
God shall crown thy work at last.
—Goethe.

FREEDOM

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think,
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
—James Russell Lowell.