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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Example

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VI. Human Experience

Example

John Keble (1792–1866)

WE scatter seeds with careless hand,

And dream we ne’er shall see them more;

But for a thousand years

Their fruit appears,

In weeds that mar the land,

Or healthful store.

The deeds we do, the words we say,—

Into still air they seem to fleet,

We count them ever past;

But they shall last,—

In the dread judgment they

And we shall meet.

I charge thee by the years gone by,

For the love’s sake of brethren dear,

Keep thou the one true way,

In work and play,

Lest in that world their cry

Of woe thou hear.