[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
On Finding One’s Faith
Courage, my heart! e’en though I am but blind,
Lacking a crystal compass for the way;
Though storms abound in my uncertain day,
And eddying pools and quicksands there I find —
Courage, my heart! the world was e’er unkind
To him who scorned her plausible array
Of pampered deities, and from the clay
Of his own thoughts a temple new designed
Wherein to worship. This perpetual din
Praising her outworn idols only cheats
Th’ unthinking: this is plain to minds unbarred —
The world so long has coddled in her skin
Such heresies, such dogmas and deceits,
That she grows constipated, set, and hard.
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 40
Editor’s notes:
din = a loud noise which continues for a significant amount of time, especially an unpleasant noise
e’en = (archaic) a contraction of “even”
e’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “ever”
th’ = (vernacular) the
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