THIS WORLD IS FULL OF BEAUTY.
THERE lives a Voice within me, a guest-angel of my
heart,
And its bird-like warbles win me, till the tears
a-tremble start;
Up evermore it springeth, like some magic melody,
And evermore it singeth this sweet song of songs
to me—
“This world is full of beauty, as other worlds
above.
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of
love.”
Morn’s budding, bright, melodious hour comes
sweetly as of yore;
Night’s starry tendernesses dower with glory
evermore:
But there be million hearts accursed, where no
glad sunbursts shine,
And there be million souls athirst for Life’s
immortal wine.
This world is full of beauty, as other worlds
above;
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of
love.
If faith, and hope, and kindness passed, as coin,
‘twixt heart and heart,
Up through the eye’s tear-blindness, how the
sudden soul should start!
The dreary, dim, and desolate, would wear a sunny
bloom,
And Love should spring from buried Hate, like
flowers from Winter’s tomb.
This world is full of beauty, as other worlds
above;
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of
love.
Were truth our uttered language, Spirits might
talk with men,
And God-illumined earth should see the Golden
Age again;
The burthened heart should soar in mirth like
Morn’s young prophet-lark,
And Misery’s last tear wept on earth quench Hell’s
last cunning spark!
This world is full of beauty, as other worlds
above;
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of
love.
We hear the cry for bread with plenty smiling all
around;
Hill and valley in their bounty blush for Man
with fruitage crowned.
What a merry world it might be, opulent for all,
and aye,
With its lands that ask for labour, and its wealth
that wastes away!
This world is full of beauty, as other worlds
above;
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of
love.
The leaf-tongues of the forest, and the flower-lips
of the sod—
The happy Birds that hymn their raptures in the
ear of God—
The summer wind that bringeth music over land
and sea,
Have each a voice that singeth this sweet song of
songs to me—
“This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above;
And, if we did our duty, it might be as full of love.”
– Gerald Massey (English poet and political activist, 1828-1907)
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]