Out of the sun, out of the blast, Out of the world, alone I passed Across the moor and through the wood To where the monastery stood.
There neither lute nor breathing fife, Nor rumour of the world of life, Nor confidences low and dear, Shall strike the meditative ear.
Aloof, unhelpful, and unkind, The prisoners of the iron mind, Where nothing speaks except the hell The unfraternal brothers dwell.
Poor passionate men, still clothed afresh With agonising folds of flesh;
Whom the clear eyes solicit still To some bold output of the will, While fairy Fancy far before And musing Memory-Hold-the-door Now to heroic death invite And now uncurtain fresh delight:
O, little boots it thus to dwell On the remote unneighboured hill!
O to be up and doing, O
Unfearing and unshamed to go In all the uproar and the press About my human business!
My undissuaded heart I hear Whisper courage in my ear.
With voiceless calls, the ancient earth Summons me to a daily birth.
Thou, O my love, ye, O my friends -
The gist of life, the end of ends -
To laugh, to love, to live, to die, Ye call me by the ear and eye!
Forth from the casemate, on the plain Where honour has the world to gain, Pour forth and bravely do your part, O knights of the unshielded heart!
Forth and forever forward! - out From prudent turret and redoubt, And in the mellay charge amain, To fall but yet to rise again!
Captive? ah, still, to honour bright, A captive soldier of the right!
Or free and fighting, good with ill?
Unconquering but unconquered still!
And ye, O brethren, what if God, When from Heav'n's top he spies abroad, And sees on this tormented stage The noble war of mankind rage:
What if his vivifying eye, O monks, should pass your corner by?
For still the Lord is Lord of might;
In deeds, in deeds, he takes delight;
The plough, the spear, the laden barks, The field, the founded city, marks;
He marks the smiler of the streets, The singer upon garden seats;
He sees the climber in the rocks:
To him, the shepherd folds his flocks.
For those he loves that underprop With daily virtues Heaven's top, And bear the falling sky with ease, Unfrowning caryatides.
Those he approves that ply the trade, That rock the child, that wed the maid, That with weak virtues, weaker hands, Sow gladness on the peopled lands, And still with laughter, song and shout, Spin the great wheel of earth about.
But ye? - O ye who linger still Here in your fortress on the hill, With placid face, with tranquil breath, The unsought volunteers of death, Our cheerful General on high With careless looks may pass you by.
