Poems (Kennedy)/Forgiveness
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For works with similar titles, see Forgiveness.
FORGIVENESS
I SAY to you:
Forgive your friend, if so he drops
Into your heart a stinging word.
He will be sorry by and by
And all his higher nature stirred
To live more purely when he sees
You put aside the thing you heard.
Forgive your friend, if so he drops
Into your heart a stinging word.
He will be sorry by and by
And all his higher nature stirred
To live more purely when he sees
You put aside the thing you heard.
And yet again:
Forgive your enemy; he wounds
With malice, hoping that the dart
May rankle deep and fester sore.
You shame him by the better part
Of unrequited hate, and rob
Of all its after-lust the venomed dart.
Forgive your enemy; he wounds
With malice, hoping that the dart
May rankle deep and fester sore.
You shame him by the better part
Of unrequited hate, and rob
Of all its after-lust the venomed dart.
Your friend and foe—
Forgive these two the seventy
By seven times that love decreed,
For each forgiveness lifts you up
(From taint of sordid passions freed)
To heights of true nobility,
Where Truth fulfils the spirit's need.
Forgive these two the seventy
By seven times that love decreed,
For each forgiveness lifts you up
(From taint of sordid passions freed)
To heights of true nobility,
Where Truth fulfils the spirit's need.
But mark you this:
One thing you shall not e'er forgive
The while the folding years descend,
And that is YOUR OWN SELF, if so
You wrong a foe or wound a friend;
For no soul that condones its fault
Comes white and unscarred to the end.
One thing you shall not e'er forgive
The while the folding years descend,
And that is YOUR OWN SELF, if so
You wrong a foe or wound a friend;
For no soul that condones its fault
Comes white and unscarred to the end.