Poems (Hoffman)/The Answer
For works with similar titles, see The Answer.
THE ANSWER
Not all unanswered now—the question of my soulAsked of the cliff's age-furrowed brow,Lost in the billow's roll;For softer, grander than human speechAre the answering thoughts that soothe and teach,Thoughts launched by God, like sea-weed thrownOn the restless waves of life's great unknown,Cast up on life's wave-washed beach.Pure, calm, as a dove to its sheltered nestMy answer came on the wave's white crest.
The question: (This was the troubled thing—A mourning dove with a broken wing.)Tell me, oh billows, that roll on rollSpeak more than all things to the human soul!Why must one spirit feel every dartThat has rent the body or pierced the heart,Mental and physical, heart and brain,Is there left one link in life's jeweled chainThat has not quivered with human pain?
The answer: (This was the heavenly thing—A peaceful dove with a jeweled wingThat fluttered down from the billow's crestAnd crossed its wings on a troubled breast.)"Thou art given the priceless, jeweled keyThat unlocks the great heart of humanity,Thou hast felt their labor, their strife, their painTheir weary heartaches, their grief and care,Their bitter struggles and dark despair;Let not one knock at thy heart in vain."
O little dove with thy folded wings!O billows that utter such wondrous things!Ye are thoughts from God; let him send at choiceThe ocean thunder, the still small voice;If they speak from One who alone can knowThe height and the depth of our human woe;Who has felt each pang of our mortal breath,Sin's serpent fang and the night of death,And Who o'er the waves of Life's troubled seaCalls unto the suffering: "Come unto Me."
Touched with His compassion for sin and pain,In a world that is starving for sympathy,Where every heart knoweth its misery,May life's hard lessons be not in vain;Content if they teach me one noble songThat shall lift one life from the wrecks of wrong.