Truth never hurt the teller.

Desire joy and thank God for it. Renounce it, if need be, for other's sake. That's joy beyond joy.

Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.

It is the glory and good of Art, That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine at least.

It 's wiser being good than bad; It 's safer being meek than fierce; It 's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched.

How well I know what I mean to do When the long dark Autumn evenings come, And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue? With the music of all thy voices, dumb In life’s November too! I shall be found by the fire, suppose, O’er a great wise book as beseemeth age, While the shutters flap as the cross-wind blows, And I turn the page, and I turn the page, Not verse now, only prose!

That great brow And the spirit-small hand propping it.