George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
Confessio AmantisWilliam Ellery Channing (18181901)
I
I strive and hope in vain;
My wounds may not all heal,
Nor time their depth reveal.
As in the oak’s cool shade I lay,
And thought that shining, lightsome river
Went rippling, rippling on forever:—
Should sing and love in vain;
That I should fret and pine,
And hopeless thought define.
That asks no pleasure in a part,
But seeks the whole; and finds the soul,
A heart at rest, in sure control.
Or fine or foul, or rich or brave;
Accept that measure in life’s cup,
And touch the rim and raise it up.
So much endurance it enfolds;
Or base and small, or broadly meant,
I cannot spill God’s element.
Not Solon, nor a Plato’s lore;
So much had they the power to do,
So much hadst thou, and equals too.