The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier/What the Voice said
WHAT THE VOICE SAID
Maddened by Earth’s wrong and evil,
“Lord!” I cried in sudden ire,
“From Thy right hand, clothed with thunder,
Shake the bolted fire!
“Love is lost, and Faith is dying;
With the brute the man is sold;
And the dropping blood of labor
Hardens into gold.
“Here the dying wail of Famine,
There the battle’s groan of pain;
And, in silence, smooth-faced Mammon
Reaping men like grain.
“ ‘Where is God, that we should fear Him?’
Thus the earth-born Titans say;
‘God! if Thou art living, hear us!’
Thus the weak ones pray.”
“Thou, the patient Heaven upbraiding,”
Spake a solemn Voice within;
“Weary of our Lord’s forbearance,
Art thou free from sin?
“Fearless brow to Him uplifting,
Canst thou for His thunders call,
Knowing that to guilt’s attraction
Evermore they fall?
“Know’st thou not all germs of evil
In thy heart await their time?
Not thyself, but God’s restraining,
Stays their growth of crime.
“Couldst thou boast, O child of weakness!
O’er the sons of wrong and strife,
Were their strong temptations planted
In thy path of life?
“Thou hast seen two streamlets gushing
From one fountain, clear and free,
But by widely varying channels
Searching for the sea.
“Glideth one through greenest valleys,
Kissing them with lips still sweet;
One, mad roaring down the mountains,
Stagnates at their feet.
“Is it choice whereby the Parsee
Kneels before his mother’s fire?
In his black tent did the Tartar
Choose his wandering sire?
“He alone, whose hand is bounding
Human power and human will,
Looking through each soul’s surrounding,
Knows its good or ill.
“For thyself, while wrong and sorrow
Make to thee their strong appeal,
Coward wert thou not to utter
What the heart must feel.
“Earnest words must needs be spoken
When the warm heart bleeds or burns
With its scorn of wrong, or pity
For the wronged, by turns.
“But, by all thy nature’s weakness,
Hidden faults and follies known,
Be thou, in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thine own.
“Not the less shall stern-eyed Duty
To thy lips her trumpet set,
But with harsher blasts shall mingle
Wailings of regret.”
Cease not, Voice of holy speaking,
Teacher sent of God, be near,
Whispering through the day’s cool silence,
Let my spirit hear!
So, when thoughts of evil-doers
Waken scorn, or hatred move,
Shall a mournful fellow-feeling
Temper all with love.