StoryTitle("caps", "Rabbi Ben Ezra") ?>
Ben Ezra" (by Robert Browning, 1812-89). Youth is for
dispute and age for counsel; each year, each period of a man's life
is but the necessary step to the next. Youth is an uncertain thing
to bank on.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Grow old along with me!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The best is yet to be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The last of life for which the first was made.\"", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
"Rabbi Ben Ezra" is a plea for each period in life.
Aspiration is the keynote.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\" ... Trust God; see all, nor be afraid!\"", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Grow old along with me!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The best is yet to be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The last of life, for which the first was made:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Our times are in His hand", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Who saith, \"A whole I plann'd,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Youth shows but half; trust God: see all nor be afraid!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not that, amassing flowers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Youth sigh'd, \"Which rose make ours,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Which lily leave and then as best recall?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not that, admiring stars,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "It yearn'd, \"Nor Jove, nor Mars;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not for such hopes and fears", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Annulling youth's brief years,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Rather I prize the doubt", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Low kinds exist without,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Finish'd and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.", "") ?>
PagePoem(313, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Poor vaunt of life indeed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Were man but formed to feed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Such feasting ended, then", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As sure an end to men;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-cramm'd beast?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Rejoice we are allied", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To That which doth provide", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And not partake, effect and not receive!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A spark disturbs our clod;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Nearer we hold of God", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Then, welcome each rebuff", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That turns earth's smoothness rough,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Each sting, that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Be our joys three parts pain!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Strive, and hold cheap the strain;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For thence,—a paradox", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Which comforts while it mocks,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What I aspired to be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And was not, comforts me:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What is he but a brute", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Whose flesh has soul to suit,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?", "") ?>
PagePoem(314, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To man, propose this test—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thy body at its best,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Yet gifts should prove their use:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I own the Past profuse", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of power each side, perfection every turn:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Eyes, ears took in their dole,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Brain treasured up the whole:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Should not the heart beat once \"How good to live and learn?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not once beat \"Praise be Thine!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I see the whole design,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Perfect I call Thy plan:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thanks that I was a man!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For pleasant is this flesh,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Our soul, in its rose-mesh", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Pull'd ever to the earth, still yearns for rest;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Would we some prize might hold", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To match those manifold", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Let us not always say,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"Spite of this flesh to-day", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!\"", "") ?>
PagePoem(315, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As the bird wings and sings,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Let us cry, \"All good things", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Therefore I summon age", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To grant youth's heritage,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Life's struggle having so far reached its term:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thence shall I pass, approved", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A man, for aye removed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I shall thereupon", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Take rest, ere I be gone", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Once more on my adventure brave and new:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Fearless and unperplex'd,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When I wage battle next,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What weapons to select, what armour to indue.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Youth ended, I shall try", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "My gain or loss thereby;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I shall weigh the same,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Give life its praise or blame:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For note, when evening shuts,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A certain moment cuts", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The deed off, calls the glory from the gray:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A whisper from the west", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shoots—\"Add this to the rest,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Take it and try its worth: here dies another day.\"", "") ?>
PagePoem(316, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So, still within this life,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Though lifted o'er its strife,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"This rage was right i' the main,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That acquiescence vain:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Future I may face now I have proved the Past\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For more is not reserved", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To man, with soul just nerved", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Here, work enough to watch", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Master work, and catch", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As it was better, youth", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Should strive, through acts uncouth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Toward making, than repose on aught found made:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So, better, age, exempt", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "From strife, should know, than tempt", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Further. Thou waitedest age: wait death nor be afraid!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Enough now, if the Right", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And Good and Infinite", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With knowledge absolute,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Subject to no dispute", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone.", "") ?>
PagePoem(317, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Be there, for once and all,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sever'd great minds from small,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Announced to each his station in the Past!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was I, the world arraigned,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Were they, my soul disdain'd,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Now, who shall arbitrate?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Ten men love what I hate,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Ten, who in ears and eyes", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Match me: we all surmise,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not on the vulgar mass", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Call'd \"work,\" must sentence pass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Things done, that took the eye and had the price;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O'er which, from level stand,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The low world laid its hand,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But all, the world's coarse thumb", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And finger fail'd to plumb,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So pass'd in making up the main account;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All instincts immature,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All purposes unsure,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That weigh'd not as his work, yet swell'd the man's amount:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thoughts hardly to be pack'd", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Into a narrow act,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fancies that broke through language and escaped,", "") ?>
PagePoem(318, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All I could never be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All, men ignored in me,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Ay, note that Potter's wheel,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That metaphor! and feel", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thou, to whom fools propound,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When the wine makes its round,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Fool! All that is, at all,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lasts ever, past recall;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What enter'd into thee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That was, is, and shall be:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He fix'd thee 'mid this dance", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Of plastic circumstance,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Machinery just meant", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To give thy soul its bent,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impress'd.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What though the earlier grooves", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Which ran the laughing loves", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Around thy base, no longer pause and press?", "") ?>
PagePoem(319, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What though, about thy rim,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Scull-things in order grim", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Look not thou down but up!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To uses of a cup,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The new wine's foaming flow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The master's lips aglow!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st thou with earth's wheel?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But I need, now as then,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thee, God, who mouldest men;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And since, not even while the whirl was worst", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Did I,—to the wheel of life", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With shapes and colours rife,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bound dizzily,—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So, take and use Thy work:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Amend what flaws may lurk,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "My times be in Thy hand!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Perfect the cup as plann'd!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lest age approve of youth, and death complete the same!", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Robert Browning.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>