Poems (Linn)/The True Self

by Edith Willis Linn

THE TRUE SELF.

WHAT though we fail! through failure
 The spirit learns to rise.
Upon the soul we bear the marks
 Of strife and sacrifice.

That which we dream of doing,
 That which we wish to be,
That which our prayer is pleading
 With pure intensity:—

This is the truest nature,
 The God-like and the strong;
Struggling and yearning upward
 Through failure and through wrong.