Poems (Hoffman)/Where True Wisdom Is Gained

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

WHERE TRUE WISDOM IS GAINED

Not from the schools of learning,
Not from the halls of pride,
Not from the breeze returning
Over the murmuring tide;

Not from the words of sages,
Not from fair Beauty's shrine,
Not from the stores of ages,
But from a source divine.

You may traverse the paths of knowledge,
That millions before have trod,
But if a man lack wisdom,
Let him ask of God.

———

My heart is like the butterfly,—
One Summer to anticipate,
One Summer full of glorious things
Wherein to flutter happy wings—
Then Winter and her fate.

———

Lift up thine eyes unto the hills
Whence all thy help must come,
Thy path, so strewn with care and ills,
Is but to lead thee Home.