Poems (Hoffman)/True Nobility
TRUE NOBILITY.
Some souls ascend like incense ever burning In golden censers classed with common clay,Soaring to sunlit heights sweet lessons learning, No frowning cloud their viewless wings can stay.
They tune their harps to nature's varied story, Vibrating all the tender hidden strings;They deem the clouds below but transitory And join the happy song the skylark sings.
What though their hands may toil with strong endeavor At tasks unworthy of a noble mind,Oft stony pathways lead to heights that never Would welcome us were these not left behind.
The pure air of the mountains seemeth clearer Because of the dense fogs that lie below,So disappointments bear the spirit nearer To measure out the things that it should know.
Did no cloud mar our skies' serenest beauty, No blasts of sorrow hush our sweetest song;We might not care to find our highest duty Nor prize the good beyond the sway of wrong.
We might forget the possible awaiting For those who by an ever-onward flightReach the sublime of mind and soul creating Beyond the fogs, beyond the clouds of night.
We might not look above the present pleasure Were bluest skies and sunbeams ever ours,We might not seek to find a purer treasure Were all our sunlit pathways strewn with flowers.
Some never rise to heights of thought and feeling But in the stagnant air below abide,Impenetrable clouds arise concealing The purity they to themselves denied.
Living like beasts, no higher thought possessing Than base iniquity or selfish gain,No wish for good in all their lives expressing, Ah! who can say they do not live in vain?
What though they move among the higher classes In social life and live in splendid state,Not always he, who most of wealth amasses, When measured mind and soul, is truly great.
But they who live above earth's vile pollution Whose outward things are not their greatest worth,Whether in public life or home seclusion, These are the true nobility of earth.
Whether the gentle hand that rocks the cradle, Or that that sways the mighty powers of state,Ennobling virtue shall alone be able To make the dens of evil desolate.
Virtue toils on, above the clouds impending, To heights all sparkling in the sunlight's glow;Up, onward, to a purer air ascending, Leaving the crowd submerged in fogs below.