ODE TO DUTY
by: William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
- TERN Daughter of the Voice of
God!
- O Duty! if that name thou love
- Who art a light to guide, a rod
- To check the erring, and reprove;
- Thou, who art victory and law
- When empty terrors overawe;
- From vain temptations dost set free;
- And clam'st the weary strife of frail humanity!
-
- There are who ask not if thine eye
- Be on them; who, in love and truth,
- Where no misgiving is, rely
- Upon the genial sense of youth:
- Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
- Who do thy work, and know it not:
- Oh! if through confidence misplaced
- They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.
-
- Serene will be our days and bright,
- And happy will our nature be,
- When love is an unerring light,
- And joy its own security.
- And they a blissful course may hold
- Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
- Live in the spirit of this creed;
- Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.
-
- I, loving freedom, and untried:
- No sport of every random gust,
- Yet being to myself a guide,
- Too blindly have reposed my trust:
- And oft, when in my heart was heard
- Thy timely mandate, I deferred
- The task, in smoother walks to stray;
- But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.
-
- Through no disturbance of my soul,
- Or strong compunction in me wrought,
- I supplicate for thy control;
- But in the quietness of thought:
- Me this unchartered freedom tires;
- I feel the weight of chance desires:
- My hopes no more must change their name,
- I long for a repose that ever is the same.
-
- Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
- The Godhead's most benignant grace;
- Nor know we anything so fair
- As is the smile upon thy face:
- Flowers laugh before thee on their beds
- And fragrance in thy footing treads
- Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
- And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and
strong.
-
- To humbler functions, awful Power!
- I call thee: I myself command
- Unto thy guidance from this hour;
- Oh! let my weakness have an end!
- Give unto me, made lowly wise,
- The spirit of self-sacrifice;
- The confidence of reason give;
- And, in the light of truth, thy Bondman let me live!
'Ode to Duty' is reprinted from
English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin. New York:
American Book Company, 1908. |
MORE POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |
|