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Poems of Sentiment

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Insight

On the river of life, as I float along,
   I see with the spirit’s sight
That many a nauseous weed of wrong
   Has root in a seed of right.
For evil is good that has gone astray,
   And sorrow is only blindness,
And the world is always under the sway
   Of a changeless law of kindness.

The commonest error a truth can make
   Is shouting its sweet voice hoarse,
And sin is only the soul’s mistake
   In misdirecting its force.
And love, the fairest of all fair things
   That ever to man descended,
Grows rank with nettles and poisonous things
   Unless it is watched and tended.

There could not be anything better than this
   Old world in the way it began;
And though some matters have gone amiss
   From the great original plan,
And however dark the skies may appear,
   And however souls may blunder,
I tell you it all will work out clear,
   For good lies over and under.

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