Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (1860–1943)

IN the heart of a man

Is a thought upfurled:

Reached its full span

It will shake the world,—

And to one high thought

Is a whole race wrought.

Not with vain noise

The great work grows,

Nor with foolish voice,—

But in repose;

Not in the rush,

But in the hush!

From the cogent lash

Of the cloud-herd wind

The low clouds dash,

Blown headlong, blind;

But beyond, the great blue

Looks moveless through.

O’er the loud world sweep

The scourge and the rod:

But in deep beyond deep

Is the stillness of God,—

At the fountains of Life

No cry, no strife!